


Perspective is Ki

by Elbowsnapper



Category: Dragon Ball, Young Justice - All Media Types
Genre: Action/Adventure, Drama, Humor, Realistic, Slow Paced
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-24
Updated: 2021-01-14
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:26:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 25
Words: 76,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27696238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elbowsnapper/pseuds/Elbowsnapper
Summary: Aiden Neve, a CEO of a construction company wakes up inside an Attack Ball that is headed on a course straight back to earth, and it only gets stranger from there. Updates Every Friday.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 13





	1. Chapter 1

_On route to Earth, Unknown Time.  
December 27th, 2009._  
  
Aiden listened to the quiet hum that surrounded him for several minutes before he was finally able to force his eyes open. Almost immediately a mild feeling of claustrophobia raced through him as he struggled to lift his head. He was inside a small round room, white padding of some sort covered the walls, and a circular window, tinted maroon sat just outside of his sight.  
  
Aiden had no idea where he was, but his entire body felt unresponsive, even his fingers refused to do much more than twitch minutely against the armrest of whatever chair he was attached to. There was a panel covered in buttons underneath the window, and strange symbols scrolled across the small glass panel there, yellow blocky lettering in some unknown alphabet. A prompt of some kind, bright red and alarming was flashing over the top of the strange letters, looking like some kind of error message that was vying for attention.  
  
The panic of being seemingly paralyzed slowly washed away over the course of the next fifteen minutes as he slowly regained the ability to move his body, starting from his fingertips and moving up his arms, and finally with a great deal of effort he was able to lift his head to look out of the window.  
  
Stars.  
  
Aiden felt another streak of unease cut through him, his stomach contracted sickeningly with the realization that there was nothing below whatever room he was inside of, he was in space. A bright light was covering the right side of the window, and when he managed to lean forward enough to get an angle on what it was he found the sun. A moment of intent searching later he located a growing shape in the direction the craft seemed to be moving, an awfully familiar shape that any human being would recognize from a picture with just a glance.  
  
Aiden was approaching the Earth, from space, inside a flying spacecraft of some kind and he had absolutely no idea how he had gotten here.

* * *

_On route to Earth, One Hour Later.  
December 27th, 2009._  
  
Almost an hour later he was really starting to get worried, as the Earth continued to grow larger in the window and he was well aware that he had no idea how to engage any kind of landing mechanism inside the craft, which obviously would result in him crashing and dying on arrival.  
  
Aiden couldn’t read the writing on the monitor panel at all, although the shape of the foreign alphabet it did have a vague sense of familiarity to it, so he was left with two options as far as he could tell.  
  
Option one was to let this thing complete whatever course it intended without interfering, and possibly dying, or option two, press buttons at random and hope he didn’t somehow eject himself into space and die. Neither seemed like an intelligent decision, but they were all he had. His body had finally reached a point where he could _almost_ feel everything once more, the return of sensation across his body seemed strangely connected with the approach to earth. Something twitched against his back and he froze, there was something in this craft with him, moving slightly in-between him and the chair.  
  
The Earth had grown to completely encompass the window now, and what looked like heat or fire was starting to color the window an even brighter shade of yellow-red but he couldn’t drag his mind away from the thing behind him to appreciate the view or even be scared of his impending crash landing.  
  
The craft he was in began to vibrate as a landmass appeared distantly below with a large body of water visible in the middle.  
  
Aiden had seen enough horror movies to realize he was about to die a horrific death via an alien parasite, so he slowly readied himself to attack, and when he gathered the willpower to force himself into action he sat forward before jamming his hand down behind him in an instant.  
  
Pain lanced up his spine as he grabbed whatever it was, and a sensation of touching himself flared up along with it and his mind raced in confusion as he painfully dragged the wriggling thing around in front of him to stare at it without comprehension.  
  
A long brown hair covered thing wriggled painfully in his grip as the spacecraft crashed into the water at breakneck speeds, but somehow he found himself unmoved inside the craft. Some kind of inertia dampening effect stopping him from experiencing the feeling of being thrown around in the small area violently. Water rushed past the window violently as the craft reached the bottom and abruptly stopped as it cratered the area, sending sediment and dirt up into the water and reducing the visibility to nothing.  
  
Aiden dragged his gaze away from the window to look down at the thing in his hand.  
  
“Why do I have a tail?” Alden said quietly, heart thudding desperately inside his chest.  
  
Aiden slowly let his apparent tail go, noting idly that it looked very much like the kind of tail a Saiyan might have, and the savage pain vanished almost immediately after he stopped trying to crush it to death, he found himself able to move it as naturally as breathing as the final effects of the paralysis faded away.  
  
The yellow lettering on the monitor panel settled, but the red flashing prompt continued to blink over the top of it demandingly. His mind was running the word Saiyan over in his mind as he took in his surroundings once more, the writing that had looked familiar reminded him of the blocky lettering on the Scouters from the anime, and the round spacecraft was obviously an Attack Ball in hindsight.  
  
What on earth was happening here? How did he _get_ the tail? How did the Attack Ball even exist, and how was it able to actually fly through space and re-enter an atmosphere? Alden realized he had no idea how he was going to get out of here, and the unease returned almost as if it hadn’t left at all.  
  
He had landed inside a body of water somewhere in the middle of a landmass, he had been too distracted by the tail and the fire to register which country it had been. How deep underwater was he, should wait inside for someone to investigate the crash? Had anyone even noticed it in the first place? The choice was taken entirely out of his hands as the pod door suddenly opened and water rushed in.  
  
Aiden managed half a breath before he was underwater, and in complete darkness, he noted in the sudden adrenaline spike that he could see pretty well considering the lack of light as he pulled himself out of the Attack Ball.  
  
He planted his foot on the top of the ball and pushed upwards as hard as he could, dragging his arms down at the same time as he desperately swam upwards, following the stream of bubbles from the pod to the surface, he realized he wasn’t running out of breath as quickly as he expected as he swam.  
  
Aiden could see the surface of the water now, as the light penetrated enough of it for him to see properly now, the water seemed so _clear_ to his sight now, it was strangely calming, and the lack of most sounds contributed to the effect.  
  
Aiden knew he hadn’t been able to see this well prior to this whole event, so something had happened to his eyes as well and it was another factor he was storing as evidence for a theory that was becoming more likely by the second. An Attack Ball, A Saiyan’s tail, massively increased lung capacity, vastly improved eyesight, and he was swimming at a much faster speed than he thought was possible.  
  
Had he somehow become a Saiyan?  
  
Aiden broken the surface and took in a long deep breath, he hadn’t even approached the point of struggling for air. He immediately confirmed that his vision _had_ indeed improved greatly, as he took in the details of tens of boats moving towards his position, lights flashing on the tops of only some of them. His hearing had also received a similar upgrade as he could hear the loud conversations clearly, that was taking place on the boats still a hundred meters away from him.  
  
“Remain where you are, do not approach, we will come to you!” A loud voice rang out clearly over some kind of loudspeaker system on one of the boats. “Any hostile movements will be met with force, please lift a single hand if you can understand this message!”  
  
Aiden had no intention of making any hostile movements against anyone, so he raised one of his hands, as he paddled with the other to keep himself afloat. One of the smaller boats approached very slowly, and a man in a police vest stood at the front sternly.  
  
“I am Lieutenant Williams,” The officer said calmly. “Identify yourself.”  
  
Aiden immediately noted the man’s accent.  
  
“Aiden Neve,” Aiden said easily.  
  
“Your spaceship was spotted landing in the lake,” Lieutenant Williams continued, “What are your intentions here?”  
  
“You have an American accent,” Aiden said helplessly, “I’m from Australia, I woke up in that spaceship, and now I somehow have a tail, I’m fairly sure somebody experimented on me?”  
  
Lieutenant Williams paused for a long moment before placing his phone back to his ear and listening, and Aiden continued to paddle in the water beside the boat unthreateningly.  
  
“If we can confirm that as true and you co-operate with us, we will do our best to sort this situation out,” Lieutenant Williams said calmly, “Do you understand and agree, Aiden?”  
  
“Yeah,” Aiden said easily.  
  
Lieutenant Williams listened to his phone for a moment before putting it away, before hooking a lightweight ladder over the edge of the boat.  
  
“Come on up,” Lieutenant Williams said evenly. “Avoid making any sudden movements and keep your hands visible at all times to avoid any incidents.”  
  
Aiden paddled over to the ladder and pulled himself up slowly, realizing very quickly that he was much stronger than before when he lifted his body weight like it wasn’t even there. He ascended the ladder at a slow deliberate pace to avoid setting any of them off and climbed over to stand in the boat.  
  
Aiden glanced around at all of the officers calmly for a moment before nodding.  
  
“I’m totally naked,” Aiden said evenly, “In case you didn’t notice.”  
  
“We noticed,” A female officer said wryly as she held out a simple brown blanket.  
  
“Thanks.” Aiden sighed, belatedly covering himself.  
  
“I’ll need you to sit down here and remain there until instructed otherwise.” Lieutenant Williams said calmly, gesturing to the bench against the cabin wall.  
  
“No problem,” Aiden said easily.  
  
Aiden moved slowly over to the bench and sat down, with his hands visible outside of the blanket.  
  
“You said you were from Australia,” Lieutenant Williams asked evenly, “Where exactly?”  
  
“Melbourne.” Aiden said calmly, “I’m the CEO of SUDA Inc.”  
  
“SUDA?” Lieutenant Williams asked simply.  
  
“Sleek Urban, Design, and Aesthetics,” Aiden said easily.  
  
Lieutenant Williams studied him for a long moment before slowly noting it down on his pad and asked another question. Aiden almost frowned at the strange reaction, the officer clearly didn’t believe he was who he said he was for some reason.  
  
“You said you were experimented on? Can you elaborate?” The officer asked seriously.  
  
Aiden nodded calmly as he thought about how he wanted to spin the story.  
  
“I’m _assuming_ I was experimented on because last night when I went to sleep I certainly didn’t have a _tail_ ,” Aiden said evenly, “I didn’t go to sleep in a _spaceship_ either, I went to bed in my apartment on Elizabeth street.”  
  
Lieutenant Williams noted it down quickly before frowning down at him.  
  
“How old are you?” The officer asked steadily.  
  
“Twenty-six,” Aiden said easily.  
  
“You don’t _look_ twenty-six,” Lieutenant Williams said immediately.  
  
Aiden blinked in surprise at the response, opening his mouth and then closing it again. What did you say to someone who told you that?  
  
“How old do I look?” Aiden said frowning, glancing around for some kind of reflective surface but making no move to stand up.  
  
“Seventeen at most.” The officer said without hesitation.  
  
“I’ll take it as a compliment than,” Aiden said strangely.  
  
“It’s not one.” Lieutenant said dryly, “So you went to bed last night in your apartment in Australia, and woke up in a spaceship looking like this?”  
  
Aiden stared at the man helplessly for a second before he managed to pull himself together again.  
  
“That’s _exactly_ what happened.” Aiden confirmed, “Where are we anyway?”  
  
“Lake Michigan, just offshore from Chicago.” Lieutenant Williams said after a moment's pause. “You know where that is on a map?”  
  
“America.” Aiden said wryly, “The accent gave it away though.”  
  
“I don’t want to hear about accents from _you_.” Lieutenant Williams snorted. “So you have no intention of doing anything strange like attacking a city or eating people?”  
  
Aiden looked at the man in disbelief.  
  
“Of course not,” Aiden said alarmed, “Why on earth would you think that?”  
  
Lieutenant Williams gave him a strange look at that.  
  
“You’re a bit naïve for a supposed _CEO_ , aren’t you?” The officer said candidly, “That kind of thing literally happens all the time.”  
  
Aiden was fairly sure the guy was just messing with him now, so he just shook his head at the nonsensical remark, he _had_ just crash-landed back on earth after apparently being abducted, so he could deal with some strange remarks. They had almost made landfall by now, and the city looked even more impressive then he would have expected even for such a famous city, actually, a lot of the buildings looked a great deal more modernized then he would have expected and he had something of an eye for such things given his line of work.  
  
More police cars greeted them as they led him down the pier they had tied off on, Aiden couldn’t help but notice all of the flashes of cameras and questions being called out. So he waved happily to the press before they had him slip into the back of one of the cruisers.  
  
“So what happens now?” Aiden asked curiously.  
  
“We take you down to the station.” Lieutenant Williams said from the passenger seat, “Once we confirm that you are who you say you are and figure out everything else we can about the situation you’ll likely be sent on home to Australia.”  
  
Aiden nodded easily, he would be home in time for supper.

* * *

_Chicago, 1:17 PM.  
December 27th, 2009._  
  
Aiden sighed for the hundredth time as he sat in the simple grey room waiting for the Lieutenant to come back again, it had been hours and nobody had come to inform him of anything yet, it seemed like such a waste of time to just be sitting around like this, accomplishing nothing at all.  
  
He could be working, or out drinking, or meeting women in nightclubs for sordid affairs. Sitting in an empty room was the complete opposite of a good time, and messing around with his strange new tail could only remain actively entertaining for so long.  
  
There weren’t even one of those mirrors like in the movies.  
  
Aiden didn’t know whether or not he really was a Saiyan, or this was somehow an elaborate trick, but the tail was definitely real, and he was already planning on paying a plastic surgeon or someone to remove it, just in case it was entirely realistic and he turned into a giant ape when he looked at the moon or something.  
  
Besides having a tail in a world where nobody else did was humiliating and would make him a target for jokes made at the costly expense of his painstakingly crafted reputation of competence and professionalism. Aiden had worked _hard_ to get where he was so young, and he wasn’t going to let some silly tail jeopardize his hard-won success.  
  
_Regardless_ of how awesome dragon ball z or the idea of becoming a Saiyan was.  
  
Aiden was trying to figure out where he would sit in a world where he was the physically strongest being, no average human, not even the strongest weightlifter, or the fastest sprinter could hope to approach even a Saiyan as Goku had been as a _child_.  
  
Aiden could remember bullets being deflected off his skin on multiple occasions, and that had been back in _dragon ball_ , as well as being strong enough to lift cars, fight massive dinosaurs, and vanish from the human sight with his speed.  
  
All of that should at least be within his grasp, even if he was as weak as Goku had started as. What had his power level been back then before they had stopped using the system entirely? Ten? Surely he could match _that_ at least, he was willing to work as hard as he needed if the result were making himself ludicrously stronger. Aiden could become an MMA fighter or a boxer, and dominate the competition with ease, earn himself some of that cash cow, with probably zero risks on his part.  
  
Busting his ass as the CEO of a boring-ass construction company could be a distant footnote in his biography a few years, he wouldn’t be quitting his job until he was sure reality actually worked out that way, but still the dream of fame, luxury and pleasure were there to be grasped.  
  
Aiden couldn’t help the smile that worked its way onto his face.


	2. Chapter 2

_Chicago, 3:32 PM.  
December 27th, 2009._  
  
Aiden couldn’t help the frown that made its way onto his face.  
  
“E-L-I-Z-A-B-E-T-H street, it's _right_ in the middle of the city,” Aiden said, annoyed, “I don’t understand how you can’t find it.”  
  
“Tell me again all of the connecting streets.” Lieutenant Williams sighed.  
  
Aiden rattled off all the nearby roads that he could remember.  
  
“Every street you’ve listed exists, except for one.” Lieutenant Williams said finally. “There is no Elizabeth street in Melbourne.”  
  
Aiden tilted his head at the comment, finding himself unable to think of how to describe further its location to the man, and they fell into silence.  
  
“What street is the Melbourne Institute of Technology on?” Lieutenant Williams said thoughtfully.  
  
Aiden gave him a dry look.  
  
“Corner of La Trobe and Elizabeth street,” Aiden said easily.  
  
“That isn’t correct.” Lieutenant Williams said immediately.  
  
“You can’t find La Trobe street, either?” Aiden demanded. “Come _on_ -”  
  
“No, La Trobe street is there,” Lieutenant Williams cut him off, “Along with Charlotte Street.”  
  
Aiden sat back in his chair at the name. There was no Charlotte Street there. There _was_ a Charlotte street further out of central. Had they changed the name overnight? Or was this guy still trying to get him to reveal something?  
  
“There’s no Charlotte Street,” Aiden said seriously. “Not there, at least.”  
  
Lieutenant fell silent for a while before flipping his pad over to the next series of notes he had made.  
  
“SUDA Inc also doesn’t exist.” Lieutenant Williams said simply. “Neither do any of the people you listed as contacts. Nor do _you,_ according to any banks, schools, workplaces, or anything else traceable.”  
  
Aiden opened his mouth, then closed it astonished, what on Earth? The street name was one thing, but this was ludicrous.  
  
“What the hell does _that_ mean?” Aiden said helplessly, “Have I been stuck in some kind of bizarro world where I don’t exist? What am I supposed to do now? What do you _mean,_ no banks!?”  
  
Lieutenant Williams studied him quietly as he tried to find some kind of sense to what was going on. No banks? What about his money? His investments? What about his property?!  
  
“Did you check the property I told you about?” Aiden demanded, thinking of his home.  
  
“Yes,” Lieutenant Williams sighed, “It’s owned by someone who is definitely not who you are claiming to be.”  
  
Aiden gritted his teeth for a long moment, doing his best to force his anger down with several deep breaths, lashing out in rage never put you in an advantageous spot, it did the opposite. When he had finally regained his calm, he spoke.  
  
“What happens now, then?” Aiden said evenly. “I have no identity, no money, no family, all I have is a tail and a Spacecraft apparently.”  
  
Aiden had to stop himself from using the words ‘Attack Ball’ when he realized that it would likely go over poorly, given the circumstances. Lieutenant Williams paused for a moment at the word spacecraft, minutely, and he would have missed it if he hadn’t been looking for a reaction.  
  
“Your, spacecraft, has been placed under league authority.” Lieutenant Williams said cagily.  
  
 _League_ authority? What did that mean, was there a department for stuff like this? Was Area 51 really just a meme after all?  
  
“You’re really going to take the only thing I have left, you sure you don’t want to take the kids as well Williams?” Aiden said wryly, “I’m going to sue you all as soon as I get my identity back, I swear to god.”  
  
Lieutenant Williams leaned back into his own chair, looking both annoyed and bemused.  
  
“Moving us back on track here,” Lieutenant Williams said after a moment, “I’m not the only one working on your case, so we will likely have an update for you in a few hours at most, but the most likely resolution you are looking at here is a deal of some sort, but this kind of thing really is above my level.”  
  
Aiden studied the man across from him for a while. Who’s level _was_ it? The chief of police? The military? The government? Was he going to end up in Area 51 after all?  
  
“What kind of deal are we talking about here,” Aiden said thoughtfully, “I just need a basic idea, I won’t hold you to anything.”  
  
“Probably to have you checked over at least, you’ve apparently been experimented on, so they likely want to make sure you aren’t about to explode or turn into a raging maniac.” Lieutenant Williams noised out a ‘hm,’ before continuing. “This isn’t the first time something like this has happened, and it likely won’t be the last.”  
  
Aiden didn’t think that sounded too bad, he wanted to know what was going on with his body as well, and he should probably make dealing with his tail a priority, so he didn’t turn into a ‘raging maniac’ as soon as a full moon came along. None of that was what caught his attention, however.  
  
“What do you mean, _not_ the first time?” Aiden demanded, “People don’t just go around abducting people all the time, I _would_ have heard of spaceships, and people crash landing like this before.”  
  
Lieutenant Williams stared at him for a long moment.  
  
“You don’t remember that girl, a woman now, I suppose, back in two-thousand-eight?” Lieutenant Williams wondered and frowned when Aiden immediately shook his head. “What about the invasion back in two-thousand-three?”  
  
“ _Invasion_?” Aiden said incredulously, “Like aliens or something?”  
  
Lieutenant Williams looked kind of lost for a moment as if he were dealing with something he couldn’t quite comprehend.  
  
“ _Yes,_ like aliens!” Lieutenant Williams said heatedly. “You got on my case about a _street_ name that didn’t even exist, but _you_ somehow forgot the Appellaxians invading?”  
  
“What the hell is an _Appellaxian_?” Aiden demanded, bewildered, having never heard the term before.  
  
“What!?” Lieutenant Williams grit his teeth, “Do you at least know what the Justice League is?”  
  
Aiden blinked at the sudden strange turn the conversation had headed in. What the hell did comic books have to do with this? It was clearly an inappropriate time to bring it up, given the circumstances, he’d been _abducted_ for crying out loud.  
  
“Of course I’ve heard of them, what has that got to do with _this_?” Aiden said mockingly, “This is serious, at least stay on topic, _Lieutenant_.”  
  
Lieutenant Williams slammed his hands on the table and stood up, looming over the table for a long moment before the door suddenly opened. A tall woman with long dark hair stepped into the room, wearing what had to be the single greatest Wonder Woman cosplay he had ever seen, and he had surprisingly seen quite a few. Strip clubs were a place he frequented after all, and there had been a time when it was popular.  
  
“Why are you _dressed_ like that?” Aiden said dryly, “This is _incredibly_ unprofessional, Lieutenant.”  
  
Lieutenant Williams looked flabbergasted for a moment, staring at him like he was utterly insane, the cosplayer, or more likely a stripper that had wandered out of a cell, on the other hand, crossed her arms and stared at him without expression.  
  
“I have no idea what his angle is anymore,” Lieutenant Williams said honestly, “He’s all yours.”  
  
The man abruptly abandoned him in the room with the stripper, and Aiden stared after him in disbelief. He’s all yours? Had the man really just left her in here with him!?  
  
“Lieutenant!” Aiden said in shock, but the man didn’t even pause as he slammed the door shut behind him. “What kind of police station _is_ this?”  
  
The stripper sat down across from him without a hint of discomfort, studying him carefully.  
  
“The Justice League has been tracking you since you landed three hours ago.” The stripper articulated in character, voice like honey. “I have been listening in on the interview as well, so consider me up to date on your situation.”  
  
The police had let a god damned _stripper_ listen in on this interview, and she was just _admitting_ it?  
  
“I’m going to need that lawyer now,” Aiden said calmly. “Any other day I’d _love_ this situation, trust me, but this cannot _possibly_ be legal.”  
  
“You don’t exist here. You don’t have any right to a lawyer.” The cosplayer said evenly. “Although a lawyer will, of course, be provided to you regardless if that is what you decide on.”  
  
Aiden just watched her from across the table steadily, completely unintimidated by her complete denial of his rights.  
  
“We have taken possession of your ship in the meantime until we can be certain that you have no ill intent.” The cosplayer said evenly, maintaining her bizarre role-play. “Should we determine that you are indeed an innocent, stranded far from home, we will assist you in getting set up here.”  
  
Aiden stared at her with narrow eyes, that ‘should we determine’ sounded extraordinarily condescending, as if she had _any_ authority over him.  
  
“Who’s going to assist me exactly?” Aiden mocked, “Is Batman going to walk through the door next? Although I suppose it would be Batwoman considering the situation, and the current company.”  
  
The stripper frowned at him before placing her golden rope on the table in front of her, and he rolled his eyes when he saw it.  
  
“Why did the Lieutenant even let you in here?” Aiden said exasperated, “Why would they bring a stripper into a police station in the first place, did you wander out of a cell?”  
  
“Excuse me,” The woman said bewildered, “I am _not_ a stripper.”  
  
Aiden rolled his eyes at her determination to stay in character.  
  
“Whatever,” Aiden said flippantly, “Are you going to use that thing on me now, or should we skip straight to the lap dance?”  
  
The stripper stared at him silently for almost thirty seconds, and he stared her down, refusing to look away. He’d had _quite_ enough of today already, and nobody had even taken him to a hospital to have this god damned anime-tail looked at.  
  
He wasn’t backing down from a god damned stripper, regardless of how attractive she was.  
  
“Who do you think I am?” The woman said suddenly.  
  
“A stripper wearing a Wonder Woman outfit, or a cosplayer, could be both really,” Aiden said easily. “What did they call her again, Diana?”  
  
The stripper stared at him silently.  
  
“Where are Bruce and Clark anyway? Waiting outside the door?” Aiden said annoyed, “Can we get this over with. I’d like to go home sometime soon.”  
  
“How do you know those names?” The stripper said intensely.  
  
“I’m tired, I have a fucking tail now, and I am _sick_ of this role-play.” Aiden said, annoyed, “Go get the Lieutenant.”  
  
“Tell me how you know those names, _now_.” The stripper said darkly, standing up to tower over him and the table both. “You are not leaving this room until you give me an answer.”  
  
“Go fuck yourself,” Aiden said evenly, leaning back in his chair and closing his eyes. “I’m done talking to you.”  
  
Aiden listened to the sound of her feet as she stomped around the table, but he refused to move from his spot. The stripper had the _audacity_ to reach down and drag him sideways out of his chair by the front of his shirt. The only thing that kept him from spilling over entirely was where his hands were still shackled to the table in front of him. Aiden jerked himself back against her grip, but she refused to let go.  
  
“Hey lady,” Aiden said darkly. “Don’t fucking touch me; this is the only warning I’m giving you before I engage in vigorous self-defense.”  
  
The woman scoffed before she jerked his face down, so they were level with each other, she was tall for a woman, but he was pretty tall himself _before_ this Saiyan nonsense, and he seemed to have gained an inch or two.  
  
“How do you know those names?” The woman said harshly.  
  
The stripper jerked him forward again, pulling his arms tight against the shackles, and he’d had enough of the assault on his person. Aiden ripped his hands away from the metal table, shattering the chains. They fell to dangle from the thick cuffs still locked tight around his wrists.  
  
The woman’s eyes went wide at the sudden movement, and he pushed her bodily away from him with both hands, she stumbled back a few steps before she caught herself. She immediately slipped into some kind of fighting stance, but he had already reseated himself at the table.  
  
“You’re a metahuman.” The stripper said cautiously.  
  
“Oh, my fucking _god_ lady.” Aiden groaned as he banged his head against the table. “Look, if you’d caught me at a club, we would be having the night of our lives right now, but this is _not_ the time for this crap. I just want to go get this fucking tail looked at before I die of tail cancer or something.”  
  
Aiden chastised himself for revealing that he had super strength to a fucking muggle, but she was assaulting him, and he had already tried to get her to leave him alone multiple times, for all he knew she was going to pull a knife out of her cleavage and shank him. The woman took two steps towards him, and he turned to her in disbelief.  
  
“Do you not know the meaning of the word _stop_?” Aiden said in frustration.  
  
“You are under the _mistaken_ impression that I am a stripper.” The woman said, annoyed.  
  
The woman reached out and snatched the shackle around his wrist. Aiden had to stop himself from pushing her away from him again but instead frowned at the crumpled piece of metal held in her clenched fist.  
  
“I am Diana of Themyscira, or more commonly known as Wonder Woman,” Diana said coolly, crushing the metal into a tight ball in her hand.  
  
Aiden very carefully didn't show any reaction to this startling discovery.  
  
“That doesn’t change _anything_ ,” Aiden said flatly, mind racing despite his tone. “You just assaulted me for no reason, some superhero you are.”  
  
This woman clearly had super strength and was claiming to be Wonder Woman, her cosplay was top-tier, and he had a _tail_. It wasn’t that much of a leap now that she had demonstrated such abnormal strength to assume that he was _somehow_ in a world with fucking _Wonder Woman_ , although that made the Saiyan stuff make even _less_ sense than before.  
  
“I acted out of frustration, but you cannot deny that you provoked me.” Diana said evenly, “Mentioning those names demonstrates the capacity to cause some substantial problems.”  
  
“Yeah, well, maybe you should have established who you were _before_ you started talking down to me from your ivory tower.” Aiden said plainly, “I think it’s become _pretty_ obvious that I’m not from here.”  
  
“The spaceship gave that away,” Diana said dryly.  
  
“For the love of-,” Aiden sighed, “My Earth _doesn’t_ have superheroes, but it’s still Earth. I am not an alien. I was abducted and put in that thing. I already explained it like three-hundred times.”  
  
“Perhaps you will be willing to allow me to test the veracity of your claims?” Diana said evenly, gesturing at her golden rope, still sitting on the table.  
  
“I’ve got absolutely zero confidence that you would stick to any agreed-upon questions, especially after your little temper-tantrum,” Aiden said immediately.  
  
“You bring my honor into question?” Diana said, offended.  
  
“Sorry, what was I thinking?” Aiden rolled his eyes. “I forgot that attacking a guy who’s chained to a table is a sign of incredible honor.”  
  
Diana twitched at the comment.  
  
“For all of your sarcasm, I do not hear a counter-offer,” Diana said finally.  
  
“I get to tie you up and ask some questions,” Aiden said smoothly. “How’s _that_ for a counter-offer?”  
  
“Absolutely not.” Diana denied it at once. “Try again.”  
  
“I’m apparently very far from home,” Aiden said evenly, “I need a place to live, with a weekly food budget, and an identity so I can return to some semblance of a normal life, hook me up, give me my ship back and we will call it a day.”  
  
“You are asking a lot, for a single question answered truthfully,” Diana said thoughtfully.  
  
“You have a bunch of multi-millionaires in your team, it's not like they can't afford it.” Aiden laughed. “I would have asked for the lap dance instead if I'd thought it would have gone over well.”  
  
Diana huffed at the comment, faintly amused.  
  
“Very well,” Diana said clearly, “I agree to your terms, but there are some additional stipulations I’ve been, encouraged, to apply.”  
  
Batman talking in her ear?  
  
“Batman talking in your ear?” Aiden said, frowning, not bothering to filter the thought. “Give me the short version.”  
  
“Monthly medical check-ups at a facility of our choosing, weekly phone interviews with a Justice League appointed psychologist, both mandatory,” Diana said evenly.  
  
Aiden frowned at the second one.  
  
The medical check-ups were a good thing, it would save him having to pay for them himself, but a psychologist? It was obviously a way to keep track of whether he had any intentions of revealing their identities, but if he was going to put up with that nonsense, he was going to get something else out of them.  
  
“I’ll agree to those stipulations. On the proviso that you bring your best doctor to remove this tail as soon as possible, at no cost. Oh! Completely unrelated to what we are talking about, but when is the next full moon?” Aiden said wryly. “Could be a crucial deadline.”  
  
Diana narrowed her eyes at the pointed question and glanced to the side for a moment, before looking back. He couldn’t hear anything coming from her, so it probably wasn’t an earpiece, was Martian Manhunter linking them all up?  
  
If you’re reading my mind right now, I’m going to be terribly upset.  
  
“Agreed.” Diana said finally, “The next full moon isn’t for another week. We will be holding onto your ship for you.”  
  
Aiden had nowhere to store it anyway, so that was fine, but a concession of that magnitude needed compensation.  
  
“You said _I_ was asking for a lot,” Aiden said calmly, “You want to study the technology, that’s worth much more than anything I asked for, and you’re trying to push it through as a footnote in our negotiations.”  
  
Diana crossed her arms as she studied him, but he met her gaze steadily. He knew _exactly_ what he was going to ask for.  
  
“Aiden, If you ask me for that lap dance,” Diana said evenly, “I’m going to do something we would both consider _very_ dishonorable.”  
  
Aiden quickly tried to think of something else. What did a Saiyan need?  
  
“I’ll be going out and testing what I can do with this strength nonsense, and whatever else I discover.” Aiden said slowly, “I’d like you to not harass me about it.”  
  
Diana studied him for several long moments before she spoke.  
  
“What exactly can you do?” Diana wondered.  
  
“Somebody call the Justice League,” Aiden said deadpanned. “I’m being harassed.”  
  
“Asking a question is _not_ harassment,” Diana said, annoyed.  
  
“As if Batman won’t be watching me with drones or something ridiculous like that, you can find out when _I_ do,” Aiden said simply. “We’ve been skipping around the main topic since I found out you weren’t a stripper. I know most of the identities of the members of the Justice League.”  
  
Diana drew a sharp breath in through her nose, at the stripper comment or the confirmation that he knew them all, he wasn’t sure.  
  
“I also know a bunch of other random stuff about other well-known people,” Aiden said thoughtfully, thinking of the villains he knew about. “I have no intention of telling anyone about any of it. You can confirm that with the bondage of truth. I must warn you, though, Diana of Themyscira, I am _totally_ a rope-bunny, and I will enjoy every second of it.”  
  
Diana sighed at the apparent confession, but dutifully retrieved her golden-rope, and looped it around his proffered arm without fanfare.  
  
“My safe word is Amazon,” Aiden said huskily before grunting as she pulled it tight around his arm. “So rough.”  
  
“What are your intentions here?” Diana said clearly.  
  
It was a pretty open question all things considered, and for a second, he was tempted to say a lap-dance. A feeling was starting to rise up his chest, and he felt his mouth open almost against his will, but he was still in enough control to choose what to say.  
  
“How strange.” Aiden said calmly, “I intend to find out who took me from my world and put me here; I have no intention of hurting anyone at present.”  
  
“Anyone at present?” Diana said dryly.  
  
“If somebody attacks me in the future, I have every intention of making sure they do not do so again,” Aiden said honestly. “I will hurt someone to defend myself as well.”  
  
“Do you have any intention of revealing the identities of the Justice League or its allies?” Diana said clearly.  
  
Despite her nature, he was still surprised she hadn’t strayed to ask him _how_ he knew. He didn’t have much faith in people if he was honest, but his opinion of her was rising by the second. He wasn’t sure he would have been able to resist the temptation himself.  
  
“I do not,” Aiden said smoothly, “If you try to manipulate, blackmail or otherwise force me to do something I object to, that may change in response.”  
  
Aiden was comfortable with the answer he had given, mutually assured destruction was a decent enough tool to keep things steady, for now at least.  
  
“You don’t have a very high opinion of the Justice League,” Diana said, seemingly disheartened at the thought.  
  
It was a statement, and the compulsion didn’t force him to speak, but the truth-only effect was still present.  
  
“That’s not it, heroes are fine. I don’t have a high opinion of _people_ in general, but so far, you have stuck to the questions, so my faith in you has already risen far above most.” Aiden said smoothly, “But your physical attack upon my _poor_ unarmed, _tied up_ person was a dent that probably won’t go away any time soon.”  
  
Diana twitched at the comment, and he fought to keep the smirk off his face.


	3. Chapter 3

_Philadelphia, 11:32 AM.  
February 19th, 2010._  
  
Aiden watched the city crawl by outside the window of the car they had sent to pick him up. The buildings were tall, modern and he couldn’t help but think the skyline must be beautiful at night, he would have to find out in the next couple of nights.  
  
Philadelphia seemingly ran along a section of the Delaware River, and according to his attempt at research was a pretty profitable place, . Several of the largest companies in the world were based here, and other companies had appeared overnight after his apparent world-hopping. Lexcorp being the largest change that he was still getting used to, they were everywhere, with a hand in _everything_. Wayne Enterprises was likewise a pervasive part of America and apparently had a few warehouses here. There were so many others that he had almost immediately given up on cataloging the differences, he would learn them as they become relevant to his interests, and research them as needed.  
  
The driver in the front seat glanced back at him again, but he paid the man no mind, he was unaffiliated with anyone important simply an average driver or so Aiden had decided, although it could have been one of the unmasked heroes for all he knew.  
  
It had been over a month since he had arrived here, and it felt like he’d barely had a moment of peace since. The paperwork had finally been made official as of the 7th of February, and they had _finally_ let him get out of the direct supervision of the police. Today was his first day in Philadelphia, and so far he’d spent it stuck in a car, for far too long.  
  
He had managed, despite his temptation, to avoid using any more abnormal things that would be considered as ‘superpowers’ to his overseers. It hadn’t stop him from playing around with the energy that he had become aware of inside of him, moving it around his body was seemingly easy enough, it almost seemed to jump to fulfill his needs. The sudden awareness of the energy inside of him had brought with it the ability to feel those around him.  
  
At the moment he was using it to investigate the people around him for almost a block, which made him aware of all sorts of things going on that he otherwise would have missed. People idling in alleyways, sleeping in bushes, and one couple doing something very daring in a stairwell of one of the larger buildings.  
  
The difference between his own energy and the amount the average person had was startling.  
  
The driver had a pretty average level of energy, and he assigned it an arbitrary measurement of the power of one unit for the sake of an estimate. If the Driver was a _one,_ and he probably wasn’t, then Aiden would have been somewhere just upward of a hundred, which was interesting.  
  
Aiden had needed to talk himself down, multiple times, from attempting to recreate the ability to fly, at least until he had _some_ privacy. Although he couldn’t help but think that they would have bugged the apartment they had supposed purchased in his name. Bought, not rented, which was surprising, clearly Batman or one of the other rich members of the Justice League had decided to just give him one, instead of renting it.  
  
Aiden wasn’t going to complain, but he also was planning on renting it out the first chance he got, and moving to somewhere cheaper so he could start bringing in some of his own money. They had essentially just given him the capital he needed to start working his way back up the ladder but he was already thinking of how he could use his powers for another stream of income.  
  
Once he had a handle on exactly what he was capable of, he was going to start another business, but this time it wasn’t going to be construction. It was going to be a bodyguard service, of the super-powered variety, and he was going to charge people through the nose for it.  
  
Aiden grinned to himself in the back seat of the car.  
  
He was drawn out of his scheming when the car slowed to a stop out the front of a large and incredibly strange-looking building.  
  
“What the hell am I looking at?” Aiden mumbled to himself as he stepped out of the car.  
  
‘STAR. LABS’ was written on a stylish looking slab near the front of the building, but the structure behind it was just weird. Tall, multi-storied, with four large pillars at each corner of the building that almost looked like the legs of a rocket. The pillars were seemingly a blend of metal and concrete, while the rest of the building was covered in panes of sleek glass. It looked as if they had let an artist design a science building from a cartoon stereotype.  
  
There was an older man, and a younger woman seemingly waiting for him out the front of the building, so he thanked the driver before heading towards the two.  
  
“Welcome, you must be young Aiden.” The older man said pleasantly.  
  
‘Young Aiden’ found himself annoyed at the descriptor.  
  
“I’m twenty-six,” Aiden said annoyed. “But yes, I am Aiden Neve, it’s a pleasure to meet you?”  
  
Aiden paused and waited for the man to introduce himself.  
  
“Emil Hamilton,” Emil said sheepishly, “My apologies, I’ll do my best to remember you are in fact older then you appear.”  
  
“Twenty-six?” The woman said bemused, “You don’t look like you’ve hit twenty yet.”  
  
“We have something in common then, miss?” Aiden said wryly.  
  
The woman flashed him a set of perfect white teeth.  
  
“Dr. Simmons, but _you_ can call me Tracy,” Tracy said happily. “I’ve heard you are from another dimension? I have some questions I would like to ask you if you wouldn’t mind.”  
  
“Once we have finished with our _actual_ task, Dr. Simmons.” Emil said dryly, “If you would like to head inside now, we can get started?”  
  
“Lead the way Doctor,” Aiden said easily.  
  
“I prefer Professor or Emil,” Emil said pleasantly.  
  
“Emil then,” Aiden said simply as the three of them headed for the entrance. “How long have you worked here?”  
  
“Two days,” Emil said wryly, “I am the director of the facility in Metropolis, but I’ve been asked to personally handle your checkups.”  
  
Aiden raised an eyebrow at that, he had spent the better part of a day finding all the cities he could remember reading about as a kid. Gotham and Metropolis stood where New Jersey and Delaware used to be. Why send someone from several cities away, and why the director of another facility? Where was the director of _this_ facility?  
  
Aiden glanced at Tracy for a moment curious.  
  
“I’m from Metropolis as well.” Tracy said happily, “I’m acting as the Professors assistant.”  
  
Emil huffed out a breath.  
  
“Tracy heard about the possibility that you are in fact from another reality and insisted I bring her along with me.” Emil said dryly, “I must admit, she is a far more effective assistant than any of the other ones.”  
  
Tracy smiled brightly at what might have been high praise coming from the man, but Aiden just nodded again. His ‘secret’ was never really a secret anyway, his arrival had been very public, to many had seen both the Attack Ball’s re-entry and there was plenty of footage of him both swimming towards the boats and being escorted into the cars. Wonder Woman being seen entering the police station hadn’t done any more harm than was already done really, but she had certainly contributed.  
  
The public had run with the story that he was an alien for the first two weeks, but he had managed to flag down a reporter during one of his rare trips outside, despite his escorts insistence for him to cease his actions, for an impromptu interview. The story had changed to something much more flattering although it was already changing again.  
  
A man torn from an alternate earth, ripped away from his family, his friends, his lover, and everything he owned. Experimented on and abandoned once they had gotten whatever they were looking for, he told them how the Justice League had offered to set him up in the new world as a citizen, where he could live peacefully and try to rebuild some semblance of a life.  
  
Aiden had tried to make himself out to be the most believably tragic victim that he could, and in turn, cemented his place as one of them, despite how his tail still flicked around behind him, marking him as something different.  
  
“We will be running a series of tests to determine both your health and how your body responds to different substances in case your immune system has been compromised in some way,” Emil said idly as he brought them into a large room on the third floor. “You haven’t experienced any signs of illness, dizziness, or anything else of note?”  
  
Aiden slipped onto the bed easily and watched as Tracy found herself a place to sit nearby.  
  
“No signs of anything health related other than a large increase in appetite, if that counts?” Aiden said easily.  
  
“Interesting, how large of an increase?” Emil said thoughtfully, “Increased energy requirements could point to a change in many different bodily processes.”  
  
“I eat about four times as much as I used to, as bizarre as that sounds.” Aiden said honestly, “I find myself snacking multiple times a day as well.”  
  
“That’s a lot of calories,” Tracy said bewildered. “Have you been putting on weight?”  
  
Emil huffed at the interjection but looked interested at the question regardless.  
  
“Yes,” Aiden said easily, “Although I’m seemingly gaining more muscle than fat, as far as I can tell.”  
  
“Are you working out, or is your body naturally moving in that direction?” Emil said immediately.  
  
Aiden blinked, having not even thought about it.  
  
“I work out twice a week, at least that was my routine _before_ all of this,” Aiden gestured vaguely, “I haven’t had a chance to escape supervision long enough to go to a gym though, so I’ve only been doing some basic calisthenics, sit-ups, push-ups, squats that kind of thing.”  
  
Emil noted it down but pressed the issue.  
  
“You know your body better than anybody else, do you _think_ it's abnormal given the amount of exercise you are ongoing?” Emil said easily.  
  
“I’ve seen more development in the last three weeks in an empty room than I have in an entire year at the gym,” Aiden confirmed simply.  
  
“That much so quickly?” Tracy said shocked, turning to the computer on the desk for a moment to click through several windows. “That is _definitely_ abnormal.”  
  
“Extraordinary,” Emil said intrigued, “You’ve demonstrated enhanced levels of physical strength, according to Wonder Woman, was there any pain associated with using that level of force? Stressed muscles? Lingering pain in joints?”  
  
Wonder Woman had totally narked on him, he was going to make sure he gave her some shit for that.  
  
“No pain whatsoever, I haven’t found anything nearby that I couldn’t lift easily either.” Aiden said curiously, “I _should_ be tearing muscles at this point, at least I think so, but you two are the doctors, what do you think?”  
  
“We can easily facilitate a device to test your strength,” Emil said immediately, “I _think,_ that your muscle fibers have been enhanced along with the rest of your body to handle that kind of stress, but we won’t know anything for certain without a sample to test.”  
  
“Maybe next time.” Aiden said dryly, “I was sold the ‘non-invasive’ package, not the ‘cut me open’ kind.”  
  
Emil grunted in consternation, prompting Tracy to giggle at the man's disgruntlement.  
  
“You’ve indicated a desire to have your tail removed, along with some kind of implication regarding the full-moon?” Emil said slowly. “Some kind of interaction between the two? Light? An image-trigger implanted via the tail somehow?”  
  
Aiden raised an eyebrow at the man, he had been underestimating him if he’d come to that conclusion with such little information available. Wonder Woman had no doubt passed on his comments about the full moon, but he hadn’t elaborated further. Aiden had locked himself in the provided room, wrapped himself in blankets, and sat in the closet messing with his phone all night, and no monkey business had occurred.  
  
“Something like that, it's also extremely sensitive to touch.” Aiden derailed the man's line of thought, “Debilitating even.”  
  
Tracy turned back around to study him curiously.  
  
“Does the pain worsen closer to a full-moon?” Emil fished, “How did you come to know about the moon being a problem when you had only just arrived hours prior?”  
  
Aiden realized that the man was obviously not going to let this point go, and his attempt at levity back then with Wonder Woman had buried him here, he could probably swing something in return for the information.  
  
“It’s a private matter that I had absolutely no intention of telling anyone, but I would, of course, be _happy_ to tell my good friend Emil _all_ about that incredibly interesting and personal piece of information,” Aiden said deadpanned, “In exchange for some information and favor.”  
  
Tracy looked amused at the dress-up and was watching to see Emil’s reaction but she didn’t have to wait very long.  
  
“Very well,” Emil said dryly, “What information?”  
  
Aiden had been thinking about the future this past month, there had been little else to do, after all, he had been stuck in a room by himself. There were several things he wanted, and several things that would make it much easier for him to increase in strength.  
  
One of those things was a lead on somebody who could make him a room with artificial gravity, surely a director of ‘Star. Labs’ could point him in the direction of someone who knew something about that.  
  
“Two things,” Aiden said evenly, “Do you know anyone who could make a room with artificial gravity?”  
  
Emil frowned at the request.  
  
“I know of _many_ individuals who would be capable of such a task,” Emil said seemingly bemused, “What is the other?”  
  
‘Many,’ sounded pretty good to Aiden, but he expected it to be something of a rarity, even in a DC world, clearly, he wasn’t very up to date on what they could do.  
  
“I need a place to put it once I get the funds together to pay for it,” Aiden said easily. “Who do I need to talk to around here to get the clearance for something like that?”  
  
Emil nodded thoughtfully.  
  
“You do need a license to utilize something like that legally,” Emil said thoughtfully, “Depending on the purpose and the morality of its use, I would be willing to deal with those issues for you, that was the favor I suppose?”  
  
“It was,” Aiden confirmed. “I intend to use it to train my body under the effects of increasing levels of gravity, which I happen to mysteriously know will be an effective training method.”  
  
“The same mysterious way you know about a connection between your tail and the moon?” Emil said evenly.  
  
“Yes,” Aiden said easily, “This is medical information doctor, if you tell anyone about anything without my permission, well.”  
  
“You’ll kill me?” Emil said deadpanned.  
  
“Worse,” Aiden said immediately, “I’ll sue you.”  
  
Emil snorted but nodded.  
  
“You have a deal then,” Emil said bluntly. “Tracy.”  
  
Tracy’s eyes widened at the sound of her name.  
  
“You’re kicking me out?” Tracy said alarmed. “I want to know about the mysterious things as well! _I’m_ a physicist this is totally my area! You’re being _totally_ unfair professor!”  
  
“Black, two sugars.” Emil said plainly and without mercy, before turning back to him. “and what will you have, _buddy_?”  
  
Aiden grinned at the absolute savage of a man.  
  
“White vanilla latte, two sugars. Thanks, Tracy.” Aiden laughed, “I can’t wait to divulge all my really interesting secrets, Pal.”  
  
“It's not funny!” Tracy called over her shoulder, as she stomped out the door. “Stop laughing!”  
  
The door slammed behind her.  
  
“Strangely enough.” Emil said amused, “Dr. Simmons is actually one of the people I would suggest talking to about your proposed artificial gravity room, I believe shes had a hand in creating several devices that deal with gravity in some manner.”  
  
Aiden nodded at the suggestion.  
  
“I’ll speak to her about it after we are finished then.” Aiden agreed. “My tail has a very strange interaction with the light that is refracted off the full-moon, and I can tell it has something to do with turning into a giant rampaging thing if I stare at it.”  
  
Emil raised both eyebrows at the sudden divulgence.  
  
“Light reflected off the moon is simply _light,_ it should have no interaction that normal light from the sun doesn’t incur,” Emil said frowning.  
  
“The words ‘Blutz Waves’ come to mind, but I couldn’t tell you the origin, there is probably an element of image trigger like you guessed as well,” Aiden said seriously. “It's fine as long as I stay inside on those days, but it would be easier to just remove the tail entirely to avoid the issue.”  
  
Emil snorted at the last comment.  
  
“Easier to remove something that is for all intents and purposes an extension of your spine?” Emil rolled his eyes, “We will be doing a thorough investigation on it before anything that extreme is even going to be on the table.”  
  
Aiden sighed at the dismissal of his desires.  
  
“I look like a weirdo, running around with a tail! There was a pair of white coats downstairs that were pointing at it and _giggling_ when we came in!” Aiden argued passionately, “It's _ruining_ my style, just cut it off man, it's not like it's in between my head and my shoulders, what possible harm could it do?”  
  
“That may be the most reckless thing I’ve ever heard someone suggest out of vanity,” Emil said incredulously. “It is _not_ happening until we are _absolutely_ certain no complications will arise.”  
  
Aiden felt like pouting, stupid fucking tail.


	4. Chapter 4

_Philadelphia, 01:02 PM.  
February 19th, 2010._  
  
By the time Tracy returned, they had long since finished talking about the monkey business, and Aiden was now sitting bored on the bed, shirt off and covered in wires, apparently recording an entire host of ‘biometric data.’  
  
“Finished with your _secret_ boy's club?” Tracy said pouting, as she handed him one freshly made vanilla latte. “or are you going to kick me out again?”  
  
“Tracy,” Aiden said blissfully, as he took a sip. “I couldn’t keep a secret from you, not when we're getting married.”  
  
Emil snorted from his place in front of the computer.  
  
“You do not have my blessing,” Emil said dryly.  
  
“I’m your assistant, not your daughter,” Tracy said, amused, before turning back to him. “Coffee lover, huh?”  
  
“I usually just call it a friend with benefits,” Aiden said quickly, before taking another sip. “But I’ll be your coffee lover.”  
  
Emil scoffed from his place at the computer.  
  
“Wow.” Tracy snickered, “I guess I walked into that one.”  
  
Aiden just smirked at her.  
  
“What was this about an artificial gravity room?” Tracy asked curiously before she hopped up onto the bed beside him.  
  
“Aiden insists that his body will react in a very positive manner while exercising under the effects of increased gravity, although he still refuses to explain how he knows such a thing.” Emil said distractedly, “Tracy, didn’t you work with Daniel Brown on some project involving gravity several years ago?”  
  
Emil had mentioned that she had helped create something like that in the past.  
  
“It was a gravity _inhibitor_ ,” Tracy said thoughtfully, “We never ended up doing anything with it either, it was pretty useless, all it did was make things float, plenty of those already in the market.”  
  
Aiden raised his eyebrows at the impressive accomplishment, that would have changed the world irreversibly back where he had come from, she would have been hailed as one of the smartest scientists of note.  
  
Apparently _here_ such an achievement could be considered ‘useless,’ how ludicrous.  
  
“That’s impressive,” Aiden said honestly, “Any way you could repurpose it to _increase_ gravity on something? How big was the device?”  
  
Tracy smiled at the praise before swinging her legs for a moment.  
  
“Not exactly a simple task, but it wouldn’t be _impossible_ ,” Tracy said, amused, “We ended up building it into a collar, so you could kind of float around with it on, but there wasn’t a system to maneuver in the air though.”  
  
A collar? Like the one that went around your neck? _That_ small? Aiden had been picturing a massive cube with pipes coming out of it in every direction.  
  
“How long would it take to redesign it?” Aiden said easily, he would usually have an offer in mind first, but he had no idea what something like this was worth.  
  
“Well,” Tracy said slowly, “Most of the parts are already there, a stronger power source would be needed depending on how much ‘resistance’ you want, a month?”  
  
A month?! Screw trying ever to get back to his old world; this place was _way_ better. Tracy was talking about it like it was an old pair of shoes she had forgotten about, how much would be considered a generous offer?  
  
“How long did it take you to make it originally?” Aiden asked curiously, tone light.  
  
“Three months, but it was part of a larger project, and we had like twelve people in total,” Tracy said happily. “It was considered one of the failures for what we wanted, and we ended up with something much better.”  
  
That was just ridiculous and incredibly wasteful.  
  
“How much do you want for it, as is?” Aiden asked easily.  
  
Tracy tilted her head in thought.  
  
“As is, it's pretty much worthless honestly.” Tracy admitted sheepishly, “Ten-thousand?”  
  
Aiden leaned back on his hands, in thought, ten-thousand dollars was something he could easily come up with, relatively quickly. Resell the apartment he had been given at just below current market value for a quick turn over, buy the device, put a deposit on a smaller cheaper apartment somewhere else, and then work on building some money back up afterward.  
  
“I’ll buy it for eight-thousand,” Aiden said evenly, “How much do you want to redesign it?”  
  
Tracy bit her lip for a moment, but looked excited at the amount, Aiden had no idea how these scientists weren’t all billionaires already, some people had _no_ business sense whatsoever.  
  
“Ten-thousand for the redesign?” Tracy smiled brightly at him, and he knew she was trying to fleece him. “Eighteen-thousand total?”  
  
“Fifteen total,” Aiden immediately counteroffered, “I’ll reveal my deep dark tail secret, whose very existence threatens the fabric of all alternate worlds.”  
  
Emil scoffed again from the computer, having remained silent through the sudden negotiations.  
  
“Is it a secret worth three-thousand dollars, Professor?” Tracy asked nervously.  
  
“Probably,” Emil said plainly, “It has nothing to do with alternate worlds, however.”  
  
“Et Tu, Emil?” Aiden laughed.  
  
Emil glanced over his shoulder, amused.  
  
“Your narcissism is showing again, _Caesar_ ,” Emil said wryly.  
  
Aiden grinned at the man before turning back to give Tracy a winning smile.  
  
“Fifteen-thousand, and the secret.” Tracy blurted, “But it better be good!”  
  
“I’ll need a week or so to come up with the money,” Aiden said smoothly, “I’ll tell you the secret then.”  
  
Tracy looked incredibly disappointed to have to wait.  
  
“This secret is really, _really_ mysterious too,” Aiden asked, amused. “ _Such_ a shame.”  
  
“Shut up.” Tracy huffed, “It will take about a month on my end, I think? Possibly a bit more, depending on what projects come up at work, I think I have most of the things I need already lying around.”  
  
Aiden couldn’t be happier, development of something of this magnitude would have taken years back in the other world, or decades, if they even knew where to _start_ , a month was nothing, he’d waited longer for delayed _shipments_.  
  
“I’d like to be kept in the loop,” Aiden said easily, “Fortnightly updates? We can do it via phone.”  
  
“That’s fine,” Tracy agreed readily.  
  
“With that, my true plan has been achieved,” Aiden said seriously.  
  
“What was your true plan?” Tracy asked, intrigued.  
  
“Getting your phone number.” Aiden grinned at her.  
  
Tracy’s face flushed slightly.  
  
“You’re definitely older than you look,” Tracy said, amused, “I’ll have to be on my guard around you.”  
  
“Probably,” Aiden admitted, “These things _alway_ s come in threes.”  
  
Tracy covered her mouth with her hand to hide her smile.  
  
“Oh lord,” Emil said, exasperated, “You can flirt _elsewhere,_ we are done here.”  
  
Aiden pushed himself off the bed and starting pulling the wires off happy to be free of the annoying things finally. He retrieved his clothes from the other end of the bed and pulled his shirt back on with a moment's effort.  
  
“Well, that was fun, but I have places to be and fifteen-thousand dollars to locate.” Aiden said calmly at the threshold, “When is our next appointment?”  
  
“Twentieth of next month is when I’ll be back in Philadelphia,” Emil said evenly, “Anytime after ten, I’ll make myself available.”  
  
“Twentieth, at ten,” Aiden recited easily, “See you then, Emil. Tracy, please contact me when you have an update.”  
  
“I will,” Tracy said happily, and Aiden could practically see the dollar signs in her eyes.  
  
Aiden stepped out of the room and made his way back to the front of the building. He followed the same path he had taken to get inside. He was left unobstructed by any of the guards that lined the first floor of the building before he stepped outside.  
  
Now he was finally on his own, no driver, no doctors, no police, and no League members. The first thing he needed to do was go and find his apartment, which was supposed to be right in central. Aiden had already spent several hours doing his best to memorize the city, and he could already see where he needed to go.  
  
He took his time, taking in all the buildings, shops, and people that populated the city. Despite the accents everyone had, it didn’t seem much different from what he was used to, and he made a note of several interesting looking restaurants that caught his eye.  
  
Aiden had always been fascinated by the skylines of built-up cities, it's what had driven him to create SUDA in the first place, but what you dream of at night and the reality of the world are two very different things.  
  
The company had ended up being nothing but a constant stream of sorting through suppliers, clients, and employees and the mistakes and grievances of all of them. Every time he had stepped back and delegated some of the work, someone had always managed to find a way to fuck it all up within record time, which had just led him to take on more and more responsibility.  
  
Which left him with a fraction of the time he’d once had, and most of his hobbies had died along with his sleep schedule. This was almost like a vacation in a way, well, a vacation where he’d been drugged, mugged, and stranded in a place with nothing but a shitty tail to keep him company.  
  
Aiden spotted the apartment building, which looked exactly like the picture from the internet, and he turned off the pavement and into the building. He took the elevator to the eighth floor and found his apartment, door number three.  
  
“Huh.” Aiden scanned the room, taking a moment to close the door behind him.  
  
Fully furnished already, which was something of a surprise, that would either be a boon or an annoyance that he would have to get rid of, depending on the buyers. Kitchen by the entrance, living room with glass windows that lined the building, giving a decent view of the surrounding streets. The bathroom was kind of small, but it was a nice place overall.  
  
The next step would be to evaluate what exactly he had here.  
  
A quick search online netted him a rough estimate, based on similarly located, equally sized apartments. He was looking at something in the range of two-hundred-fifty to three-hundred. Fucking Batman tossing around things like this on a whim. Then again, he had agreed to let them study the Attack Ball in exchange so, he was probably still getting the worse end of the deal there. Batman might turn around and use what he learned as a base to make some frontrunner technology, another drop in the ocean that was Bruce Wayne's fortune.  
  
Aiden could readily admit he was jealous of the man's success.  
  
Selling would be quick at anything below two-fifty, people would be looking at this area closely for anything under market value. Too low and they would want to drag it out until they ‘found the problem’ with it. There was nothing that he could see, but that's the impression it would give if it were too cheap.  
  
Aiden nodded to himself, he would go find the listed real estate and put it up tomorrow, right now he had something he had wanted to try since he’d dragged himself out of the lake. Aiden moved over and pulled all of the curtains shut, one after another, leaving the room in relative darkness.  
  
Aiden was pretty sure that Batman had bugged the place because the man would need _some_ kind of leverage to make sure Aiden wouldn’t release the man's identity, not that he had any intention of doing so. Still, he wasn’t going to waste any more time trying to hide it either way.  
  
“Hey, Batman,” Aiden said smoothly as he sat down in the middle of the living room floor. “Thanks for the apartment, I’m totally going to sell it though, I’ll pay you back when I’m rich again, maybe.”  
  
Aiden closed his eyes and started moving the energy around in his body until it pooled heavily at his legs.  
  
“I might end up bringing someone back here too,” Aiden murmured, starting to build the pressure of his Ki below him slowly. “If I find any sex tapes starring _me_ online, I’m going to have to kick your ass, fair warning.”  
  
Easier said than done; it was Batman after all.  
  
Aiden ramped the energy output up until he actually felt his body weight seemingly lessen by a significant degree, and an unseen wind ruffled his clothes around and sent the curtains swaying.  
  
Several minutes of concentration, dogged refinement, and singleminded focus all led to the moment that Aiden slowly, shakily, lifted off the floor to float several inches in the air.  
  
“Did Diana tell you that I thought she was a stripper? In my defense, I had no idea people were running around in costumes like that at the time.” Aiden strained out, trying to hold the energy steady. “She tried to beat me up too, in case she skipped over that part.”  
  
The energy coursing through him was an experience.  
  
It simultaneously filled and excited every cell in his body, bringing a host of sensations with it. It was a tumultuous energy that brought with it a feeling of power and potential. It felt _bright,_ alive, and ready to take action. There was no way he could have missed it after spending two and a half decades without it.  
  
It was simply too significant a change.  
  
It was the greatest thing he had ever felt, and he knew it was barely the beginning; he would grow in power, slowly, inexorably, and this energy, his _Ki_ , would grow with him.  
  
“What a rush.” Aiden breathed happily.  
  
He had found something of a balance with the energy, as it kept him afloat. The effort required to hold it in place was decreasing minutely as he grew accustomed to it; he could also feel the energy available to him _slowly_ lessening as he held himself afloat. It would take a while, but he’d never been afraid of hard work.  
  
“I know what you’re thinking, Batman.” Aiden said distractedly, “Why is he so happy with sitting six inches off the ground? Why couldn’t he just save himself the effort and grab a chair?”  
  
Aiden slowly tried to spin himself around in the air and found it took a different expression of Ki to accomplish, but he slowly managed it over the course of a long minute.  
  
“In the land of no-chairs, _I’ll_ be king,” Aiden managed to force out, as his energy slowly emptied. “and, you’ll, have, sore, legs. Ugh.”  
  
Aiden dropped back to the floor as he hit empty, barely feeling the contact with the wooden floor. He could feel the remnants of his Ki pulling themselves back into existence, but it wouldn’t be anytime soon.  
  
“I wonder if I can speed it up somehow?” Aiden wondered aloud.  
  
Spirit bomb allowed people to draw Ki towards them from other people all around the world, could he just try and draw some from his environment somehow? Aiden crossed his legs and groped at the air around him with his mind for several minutes, but it wasn’t working.  
  
Aiden switched to pushing the tiny amount of Ki he had left in between his cupped hands, and he could see a small spark of light flicker between them. Aiden tried to magnetize it somehow, try and draw more Ki towards the energy, like some kind of untrained, failed attempt at a budget spirit bomb.  
  
The spark just flickered weakly.  
  
“No luck, huh?” Aiden said thoughtfully.  
  
How did they power up in the show? There were ways of multiplying Ki, both through transformations and other things like Kaioken. How do you multiply a unit of Ki? Split it? Inflate it somehow?  
  
“How do you multiply something tangible?” Aiden murmured, as he focused on the feeling of the small flicker of Ki as it was reabsorbed into his hand. “Excite the energy in some strange way?”  
  
His hand tingled with the small amount of Ki, and he tried to shake the energy, get it to move without drifting, vibrate it until it buzzed and cracked against his skin. There was some reaction going on there, as he forced the energy to move on the spot.  
  
After almost half an hour of trying his best to garner some reaction, the small crackling speck of Ki did something strange, and his eyes snapped open to stare down at his hand. He let go of the vibration in his surprise, but the two identical specks remained before they once again became one slightly larger speck and settled.  
  
“Interesting,” Aiden said intently.  
  
The longer he sat with his eyes closed, focused on the feeling of his Ki, the more he could seemingly feel. After almost another hour of tunneling his focus on it, to the exclusion of everything around him, he had finally reached the point where he could feel the energy slowing reappearing. It was at a level that to the naked eye, had to of been the equivalent of microscopic.  
  
The process that was generating it illuded him entirely, much smaller than even the level he’d forced himself to, and far beyond his current understanding.  
  
“I will learn,” Aiden murmured, “Eventually.”  
  
An hour of meditation a day was being slotted into the first spot of his in-design training plan. He wanted to be able to understand how the energy was being formed and try to replicate that in some way.  
  
What he had done earlier made no sense, he had split the remainder of his Ki into two parts somehow, and after a moment it had been recombined. It looked like he would be relying on his natural regeneration until he could figure something out.  
  
“I’m hungry,” Aiden noted idly.  
  
Did food contribute to Ki regeneration speed? More food would mean more energy and nutrients for his body, and his body was what generated the Ki. Eating after using all of his Ki was something he could test, time how long it took to recover with or without eating. It would take two days at most, a shame he hadn’t thought of it before.  
  
Something for tomorrow then.  
  
“Right, no more of this fancy pants stuff.” Aiden said easily, “Batman, I’m going to need you to spot me; it’s time to get swole.”  
  
Aiden knelt down into the push-up position before lifting his knees off the wooden floor, his arms spread at shoulder width, he took a deep breath and then let himself drop slowly, trying to keep his form clean, before pushing himself back up.  
  
It was as absurdly easy as it had been the last thousand times he had done it over the previous month, his own weight not enough to provoke much of a resistance against his increased strength.  
  
“Where art thou, gains?” Aiden said sullenly, “Why have you forsaken me?”


	5. Chapter 5

_Philadelphia, 4:32 PM.  
February 26th, 2010._  
  
“Four’ o’clock, huh?” Aiden said dryly, “Did your watch break?”  
  
“I apologize; my work held me up.” A woman's voice said calmly. “My name is Dinah Lance; it’s a pleasure to meet you, Aiden.”  
  
Aiden rolled the name over in his mind, where had he heard that before? It had to be another one of the heroes that he hadn’t immediately recalled.  
  
“Pleasures all mine,” Aiden said easily, “I’ve never done one of these before, but I am rather busy at the moment, so if we could get right into it, that would be fantastic.”  
  
There was a small pause on the line before she spoke again.  
  
“No experience with therapy? You’ve indicated that you were the CEO of a company, I’ll admit I’m a little foggy on the details.” Dinah said evenly.  
  
Foggy my ass, Aiden thought, annoyed.  
  
“Former CEO of a construction company, very busy, sleep was the first sacrifice on the altar, you know?” Aiden admitted. “You understand, right? I remember you said that work held you up, nothing too strenuous _,_ I hope?”  
  
Aiden floated calmly above the floor in his living room, the constant practice over the last week had made keeping the exercise going much less mentally taxing, and the Ki drain itself had started to lessen along with it.  
  
“Very subtle,” Dinah said dryly, “But we aren’t here to talk about me, how long did you work there for?”  
  
“Built it at twenty-two, with a lot of help from my father, I come from a pretty affluent family,” Aiden said easily, “It was a couple of years before SUDA really took off though.”  
  
“Impressive,” Dinah said simply, “How old are you again?”  
  
Aiden rolled his eyes at the ludicrous question; she probably had a file filled with everything they knew about him in front of her, and he had told them that weeks ago.  
  
“Twenty-six,” Aiden said dryly, “Although it would appear I’ve been de-aged before I was abandoned in space.”  
  
“The picture I have of you does look like a teenager.” Dinah said plainly, “How have you settled into a much younger body? Any mood swings or irritability?”  
  
“I may be somewhat more impulsive than I normally am, although that might just be the stress of everything, it was kind of overwhelming at first, you know?” Aiden said honestly. “I’m a calm person by nature, provided I’m not currently being attacked by an Amazonian while cuffed to a table; I’m sure you know the one.”  
  
There was another long pause as Dinah apparently digested that.  
  
“I had heard of the incident,” Dinah said eventually, “I’m almost positive you had a hand in initiating that event as well.”  
  
“You’re going to start defending an incident that you weren’t even there for?” Aiden said, amused, “You sure that’s the hill you want to die on?”  
  
“We’ve gotten a little off track here, but I’ll indulge this line of thought,” Dinah said evenly. “How do you feel about the Justice League?”  
  
The meat of the meeting, huh? While trying to make it seem as if he was the one who wanted to discuss the topic, sneaky. He _could_ flat out deny that he cared about that topic and move on, that would lock her out of asking about it again, but he was hoping he could infer some hint to jog his memory of which hero she was.  
  
Her personality was reminding him of that one hero, with blonde hair, but he couldn’t remember who it was, he knew it _wasn’t_ one of Batman’s crew. This seemed like the best topic to facilitate that line of investigation.  
  
“I think they're really cool!” Aiden said childishly.  
  
He did secretly think that, but he wasn’t actually going to admit to it unironically to what was obviously one of them  
  
“Wow!” Dinah said excitedly, “Who’s your favorite?”  
  
Dinah said it like she was indulging a child, and he couldn’t help but laugh.  
  
“It used to be Wonder Woman,” Aiden said, grinning, “But I’ve got my eye on another much more interesting one at the moment, you know the one with the blonde hair?”  
  
“Black Canary,” Dinah said easily.  
  
Aiden found himself smiling, she was _good_ , she hadn’t even hesitated. That was _definitely_ who he was speaking to, Dinah Lance, Black Canary, member of the Justice League.  
  
“That’s the one.” Aiden laughed easily, “Say, you’re supposed to be my _league_ affiliated therapist, right? Think you could get me her number, I’d _love_ to have a conversation with her about all that heroing stuff.”  
  
Aiden couldn’t help himself from snickering, but by this point, they _both_ knew that _he_ knew who _she_ was.  
  
“I’ll pass it along,” Dinah said evenly, “I wouldn’t get your hopes up, however.”  
  
“Ouch,” Aiden laughed, “Ruthless, huh? Ah well, it was worth a try, was there anything left for us to cover in this session, or can we pick it up next time? I am pretty busy.”  
  
Dinah had completely lost control of the conversation at this point, and he had no intention of giving it back without a fight, she clearly read his intentions to be difficult, because that was apparently her cue to leave.  
  
“No, I think we’ve taken some great strides today.” Dinah said dryly, “Our next appointment is a week from now.”  
  
“Well, it was a pleasure talking to you, Dinah,” Aiden said pleasantly.  
  
“I understand,” Dinah said easily before she hung up.  
  
Oof, she didn’t even say it back.

* * *

 _Philadelphia, 9:14 AM.  
February 29th, 2010._  
  
“Three?” Aiden said thoughtfully, “I would have expected a lot more than that, is there something I overlooked about the area?”  
  
“Not at all,” Kalvin said pleasantly, “Its just such short notice, these are likely the ones who were actively searching for places in this area.”  
  
Aiden hummed to himself.  
  
“Well, they are free to look through whenever you can set up a day, sooner the better,” Aiden said easily, “They know I’ll be living here until the money clears?”  
  
“Yes, all three were perfectly receptive of the idea, it's not that uncommon after all,” Kalvin said happily. “I know I’ve asked several times already it's just-”  
  
Aiden laughed.  
  
“I know I’m under market value; I really need the quick sell to fund an investment.” Aiden said easily, “It's going to make me a lot more in the long run then twenty off the top here, easily.”  
  
It wasn’t really, but he needed it none the less.  
  
“You’re planning on purchasing more property in the future?” Kalvin asked sheepishly.  
  
“Of course,” Aiden said easily, “Depending on how this works out, I’ll make sure to contact you when I'm in the market again.”  
  
“A promise of future business is always a good sign,” Kalvin said cheerfully, “I’ll make sure this is handled as smoothly as possible then.”  
  
“Perfect,” Aiden said pleasantly, “Thanks for the update, Kalvin.”

* * *

 _Philadelphia, 2:45 PM.  
March 5th, 2010._  
  
“Interesting,” Aiden said, amused, “If I had to put a percentage on how much of that went over my head, It would definitely be around a hundred percent.”  
  
“Sorry, sorry, I went a bit overboard, I’ll summarize it,” Tracy laughed, “It’s going well, I’ve already managed to get my hands on a better power source from another failed project, so I’m going to use that instead of buying one.”  
  
“Sneaky, more profit off the top for you, huh?” Aiden said, amused, “Just how much do you scientist types throw away? So wasteful.”  
  
“It’s not like that!” Tracy defended, “I keep all my old inventions and parts in case I need them, I just hadn’t found a use for this one!”  
  
“I can think of a _bunch_ of things off the top of my head that you could have used the old collar for,” Aiden laughed.  
  
“It was totally useless!” Tracy argued, “There are better ones on the market already; tell me one of your ideas then!”  
  
“Of course not, then you will want to cancel our deal.” Aiden teased, “Wow, just imagine how much money you could have made!”  
  
“Liar!” Tracy cried, “You just can’t think of anything.”  
  
“I’ll tell you the day after you deliver it,” Aiden said, amused.  
  
“You and Emil both suck!” Tracy complained.  
  
“Emil wouldn’t tell you the secret, huh?” Aiden grinned, “Principled man, isn’t he?”  
  
“He wouldn’t, ugh.” Tracy huffed, “He’s the smartest man I’ve ever met, but he can be so uptight some times.”  
  
That was some praise coming from a scientist that could make a gravity generating device in a month. Emil had certainly seemed strange, both present and vague at the same time as if he took in everything around him but found all of it uninteresting. There were only a few times when he had actually seen any energy in the man, and it seemed to be when he was trying to wrap his head around something strange like the monkey transformation.  
  
“My next check-up is coming up in a fortnight, you coming back to town?” Aiden asked curiously.  
  
“Can’t,” Tracy sighed, “Work has taken on several contracts, so we are all working on it as much as possible to make the deadline.”  
  
“If you need to put my commission on the backburner for a while, I don’t mind,” Aiden said easily, “Don’t burn yourself out trying to do both.”  
  
“Thanks, but I’ll be fine,” Tracy said happily, “I’m doing what I love after all.”  
  
“I wish we could all say the same, but I’m happy for you.” Aiden laughed.  
  


* * *

 _Philadelphia, 4:17 PM.  
March 5th, 2010_  
  
“Goals for the future?” Aiden asked curiously.  
  
It was obviously a barely veiled attempt to get him to tell them what he was going to aim for, and if they needed to take preparatory action against him.  
  
“Things you want to do, things you want to work towards,” Dinah said evenly as if he didn’t know what the word meant. “Where do you see yourself in five years?”  
  
Five years?  
  
“That’s a long time,” Aiden said thoughtfully, giving the question serious thought. “I will be rich by then, powerful enough to protect myself from just about anything; I’ll make another company of some kind, make my mark on the world, you know?”  
  
“You’re very confident,” Dinah said idly, “You ‘will’ have all that as if it’s a forgone conclusion.”  
  
“It's _five_ years,” Aiden said incredulously, “That’s almost a lifetime, and I have no intention of sitting on my ass and doing nothing, at least not during working hours.”  
  
“Powerful enough to protect yourself,” Dinah brushed past his dramatics, “From what? Why do you need to be powerful?”  
  
“From threats, obviously.” Aiden said dryly, “I’ve been reading about all the weird stuff that has happened here on the internet. I certainly don’t feel very safe; I doubt anyone else does either, not with these superhumans popping up and running around with little regard for the average person.”  
  
“Metahumans, don’t forget that _you_ are one of them,” Dinah corrected almost reflexively, “So you think you will be targeted? Why?”  
  
Not quite what he had said, but now that she mentioned it, he probably would be targeted eventually. Either because of the business that he intended to create or simply because some crazy asshole like Lex Luthor or the Brain wanted to experiment on him because he came from ‘off-world.’  
  
“The obvious reasons,” Aiden said evenly, “People think I’m an alien, despite my best efforts. Eventually, someone will take a shot at me, and I’ll be ready.”  
  
“What would be so bad about being an alien?” Dinah asked leadingly.  
  
Aiden sighed; he was starting to figure out why most people disliked psychologists.  
  


* * *

 _Philadelphia, 9:03 AM.  
March 9th, 2010._  
  
“What's the expected final date of the transfer again?” Aiden asked distractedly as he continued to complete his morning workout.  
  
His phone, on speaker, crackled a bit as the voice carried over the line.  
  
“We are just waiting on processing now, everything else is handled,” Kalvin said cheerfully, “It should clear on the 15th March, but if there are any unexpected delays it could take longer.”  
  
“Do we expect any ‘unexpected’ delays?” Aiden laughed as he lowered himself back down to the floor.  
  
“No, no!” Kalvin said good-naturedly, “Everything seems to be going perfectly smoothly, I’ll call you as soon as we get confirmation, and you’ll have to bring the keys in the same day.”  
  
“That’s fine,” Aiden said, amused, “I’ll look forward to the good news on the 15th then, thanks, Kalvin.”  
  
“It's no problem at all!” Kalvin said cheerfully.  
  
Aiden dropped out of his handstand for a moment to end the call before getting straight back to it.  
  


* * *

 _Philadelphia, 4:23 PM.  
March 12th, 2010._  
  
“Not really, I got into a couple of fights as a kid, I suppose, standard schoolyard stuff,” Aiden said easily, “I’ve been thinking about taking some lessons though once I have the money available.”  
  
“Have you been looking for a job?” Dinah asked evenly, “Lessons can be expensive.”  
  
There was no way Batman didn’t already know he was selling the apartment, so she should know about it as well.  
  
“I’m working on something at the moment,” Aiden said thoughtfully. “I’ll have some money soon to play with.”  
  
“Something legal, I hope?” Dinah said dryly.  
  
“What's that supposed to mean, huh?” Aiden said incredulously, “When have I ever given the impression that I would do something illegal?”  
  
Aiden’s business was absolutely going to be legal, _eventually_. That’s what secret identities were for, though.  
  
“I suppose I should have a little faith in you,” Dinah conceded.  
  
Aiden smirked.  
  
“Know any good places to learn martial arts?” Aiden said cheekily. “Think you could ask that blonde chick from the Justice League? What was her name again? Blue Catapult? Black Catapillar? Something like that, I hear shes pretty good at fighting.”  
  
Dinah sighed.  
  


* * *

 _Philadelphia, 9:35 AM.  
March 15th, 2010._  
  
“I’ll be down in half an hour,” Aiden said happily, “Thanks for all your hard work, Kalvin!”  
  
“No problem! The work isn’t done quite yet,” Kalvin said happily, satisfied with himself, “Anything you want me to keep an eye out for in the future? Or are you happy with the apartment you picked out?”  
  
Aiden was already half-dressed and ready to go, but he paused for a moment in thought.  
  
“Actually, I might need a small building for storage with an unloading area at some point, not for months, though.” Aiden said thoughtfully, “Somewhere to set up some production equipment once I get my hands on it?”  
  
“I don’t spend a lot of time dealing with those types of building, but a commission is a commission, right?” Kalvin laughed. “You’re paying the new deposit today?”  
  
“Yeah,” Aiden grinned, “I just need to drop past the bank first.”  
  
“Understood,” Kalvin chirped.  
  


* * *

 _Philadelphia, 2:59 PM.  
March 19th, 2010._  
  
“I don’t mind at all,” Aiden said easily, “Put it down for a week, I don’t want to be the reason you got fired.”  
  
“I’m not going to get _fired,”_ Tracy said quickly, “The main build at work is just taking much longer than we all expected, and if that one gets delayed, we are going to take a hit to the commission.”  
  
“Its fine, Tracy, relax.” Aiden reassured, “I’m a big boy; I can wait a couple of weeks.”  
  
“Thanks, Aiden,” Tracy breathed in relief. “I’ll take you out for coffee next time I’m in town as an apology.”  
  
“Sounds good to me,” Aiden said pleasantly, “My dear coffee-lover.”  
  
Tracy snorted at the reminder.  
  


* * *

 _Philadelphia, 4:23 PM.  
March 19th, 2010._  
  
“Where are you staying now, then?” Dinah asked, bewildered. “You didn’t mention this in any of our previous conversations.”  
  
“I assumed you already knew,” Aiden said curiously, wondering if she was acting. “I’m in a hotel for the moment while I wait for my deposit to clear on the new place.”  
  
“What was wrong with the old place?” Dinah asked, honestly.  
  
“Nothing, I just needed some money to play with, and downgrading the apartment was the easy method available.” Aiden said smoothly, “I’ll end up paying Batman back eventually if you’re worried about that.”  
  
“I have no idea about that,” Dinah said immediately, “What do you plan on doing with the money you have to ‘play’ with now?”  
  
“Are you my financial advisor, as well as my therapist?” Aiden said, amused.  
  
“You don’t have to answer,” Dinah said calmly, having recovered.  
  
“No, no, no.” Aiden said loudly, “You clearly wanted to know, so I’ll tell you all about my Friday night plans.”  
  
“Friday night plans?” Dinah said evenly.  
  
“I met this _total_ fox of a woman downtown last week,” Aiden started with a shit-eating grin on his face. “I told her I’d buy her one of those really expensive-”  
  
“Moving on,” Dinah said dryly. “You will need to keep us updated on the address of your new residence.”  
  
“I’m pretty sure Batman already knows,” Aiden said, amused, “but I’ll pass it along at our next therapy session, Big D.”  
  
“That might be the worst nickname anyone has ever given me,” Dinah said, annoyed.  
  
Aiden just laughed.  
  


* * *

 _Philadelphia, 10:03 PM.  
March 20th, 2010._  
  
“Aiden,” Emil said distractedly, as he typed away at his computer. “Your entire body is fascinating, from what I’ve been able to discover from the non-invasive scans, at least.”  
  
“Still gunning for that sample, huh?” Aiden said, amused. “Any luck with the tail?”  
  
Emil glanced over his shoulder.  
  
“A sample would make this an order of magnitude faster,” Emil said, annoyed. “The tail isn’t grafted on, it’s a staple part of your body, the nerves are a seamless continuation of your spine, and the removal would likely be incredibly damaging.”  
  
Aiden almost sighed, they had literally just cut them all off in the show, with swords or energy attacks.  
  
“It also appears that your body contains some kind of unknown cell mutations that I’ve never seen before. Even taking into account your strange body, most of these cells are located in two different areas,” Emil said intrigued, as he used the projector by his desk to shine a picture of a male body on the wall. “The most concentrated amount is located just below your neck, in between your shoulder blades.”  
  
A small blip appeared on the image and Aiden tilted his head in thought, he hadn’t had a chance to watch much of the newer stuff that had been released before he’d been isekai’d, but he could vaguely remember something about S-cells and transforming via back tingles. It had sounded stupid at the time and even looking at what could be proof of concept, it was _still_ ridiculous.  
  
A second blip appeared right at the base of his tail, where it connected to his spine.  
  
“The second one is located here, at the nervous system locus connecting the spine and tail,” Emil said plainly.  
  
“Which area has more of these mutated cells?” Aiden asked distractedly.  
  
He felt around in his back for the area, and there was something there, like a small ‘texture’ change in his Ki, but it was so faint it was almost non-existent, and a follow-up attempt at the tail revealed much the same, barely there.  
  
“Currently, the tail, but it's not by much.” Emil said immediately, “I would like to perform another full series of scans again to see if there are any differences since the last time, so you’ll need to lose the shirt.”  
  
Aiden sighed; more tests.


	6. Chapter 6

_Philadelphia, 3:49 PM.  
March 26th, 2010._  
  
The walk back to his hotel wasn’t a long one, maybe ten minutes at a leisurely pace. Aiden made sure to get out at least once a day; for the sake of his mental health, if nothing else, he already got plenty of exercise given his current routine, but being around other people certainly raised his mood.  
  
There were quite a few people out already, which made perfect sense given it was a Friday, and most of the nine-to-fivers were getting close to finishing or leaving early. He had a phone appointment with Dinah again in about twenty minutes as well, which was an interesting kind of battle.  
  
At first, Aiden had hated the forced therapy, mostly because it had felt like such a waste of time, he had initially learned nothing new about himself, and it only seemed like they were collecting information about him in order to build some kind of profile. Aiden had let go of his annoyance though and focused on the silver lining, every week he got to try and piss Black Canary off without the threat of being beaten up, and she couldn’t do anything about it.  
  
It was hilarious.  
  
He made sure to answer most of the questions, although he made sure that anything business-related stayed off the table completely, he didn’t care if they knew about his personal life, but he didn’t need any millionaires stealing his ideas before he’d even had a chance to enact any of them.  
  
A series of gunshots went off from behind a tall building on his right, echoing down the alleyway one after another. Aiden turned towards the entrance, be he couldn’t see anything in the section that was visible, it was deeper in, couldn’t be more than twenty meters away given how loud it was. Now that he was focusing on it, he could hear the sounds of a struggle, and the rapid tap of feet skipping around.  
  
Someone was fighting someone with a gun?  
  
Aiden was almost certain he was bulletproof, and the continual testing of his durability gave him some confidence in being mostly knife proof, anything short of a superhuman he would be able to manhandle with ease, so he strode down the alleyway without fear. He needed to get used to doing things like this anyway, given his future career choice.  
  
Aiden listened to the fight as it seemingly centered around the one place in the alleyway, only moving several meters away before seemingly heading back to the same spot. The gun went off again three times, and he heard it ricochet off the brick walls of the alleyway, but there were no pained noises, so he was assuming all three shots had missed somehow.  
  
Aiden stepped around the corner.  
  
Three people, two upright fightings with an absurd level of martial arts, looked like something out of an action film, but his enhanced reflexes were slowing it down enough that he could follow along easily. There was a third person lying face down on the ground, unmoving. The taller of the two, probably male, wore a full black costume, plus a black cape that fell around his thick boots, the skintight suit covered his face entirely, a white circle right on the face of it.  
  
The woman that was fighting him was much shorter, in a very pale green skintight bodysuit, she had one of those silly little masks on that only cover the eyes and nothing else that some of the heroes wore.  
  
The third woman, the one on the ground, was wearing a black and grey bodysuit, a black mask that left her mouth exposed, and a large amount of long white hair that stuck up in a massive cowlick.  
  
Aiden didn’t recognize any of them, but it took barely a moment to determine who was the bad guy. The shorter woman was fighting to defend the woman on the ground, and the man in black was trying to shoot them both, but every time he tried to line up a shot, the shorter woman would disrupt his aim.  
  
“Hey,” Aiden said evenly, “Need some help?”  
  
The man in the black suit immediately slipped around to the other side and started to disengage away from them all. The pale green woman chased after him, probably to stop him from taking advantage of the sudden distance to shoot at the woman on the ground, and they disappeared around the corner.  
  
“Look after her!” The shorter woman called out as she vanished.  
  
Aiden approached the woman on the ground, she felt relatively strong and healthy in his Ki-sense, but she was apparently injured, he checked if she was breathing and found that she was. Her right arm was twisted beneath her at an awkward angle as if she had tried to use it to brace herself, and it had broken under the force.  
  
He very carefully turned her over, making sure to keep her neck supported to avoid any accidents, before pulling out his phone. As he called an ambulance, he noted that there was a feather sticking out of her abdomen; Further, inspection showed it was some kind of dart-like thing with an empty glass canister.  
  
“This looks like one of those tranquilizer darts from a movie,” Aiden said, amused. “Weird.”  
  
The guy in black had obviously shot her with the dart and then tried to kill her, which was strange. He landed the first shot clearly, why didn’t he just gun her down if that was his plan? The leggings he had initially thought were grey in the low light were actually a very, very pale purple.  
  
“Yeah, in the alleyway across from the music shop,” Aiden confirmed to the lady on the phone. “Should I be doing anything? She seems to be breathing perfectly fine, but her arms pretty messed up, blood around her nose as well.”  
  
Aiden listened to the instructions, following the advice until he could hear the sirens in the distance.  
  
“Nah, she's got a mask on, I’m not touching that with a ten-foot pole,” Aiden said, amused, “I don’t want some hero coming to beat me up in revenge.”  
  
Aiden glanced up as he felt the pale green woman return, he knew it was her because her signature was the strangest thing he had ever felt, she was probably an alien or something given how different she felt from all of the others around. Wasn’t that strange given how many of them were apparently running around on this new world?  
  
“Aiden Neve, yeah, thanks,” Aiden said easily. “I can hear the ambulance.”  
  
Aiden ended the call as two men rounded the corner with a gurney, looking hesitant for a moment at the woman at the end of the alley.  
  
“These two are heroes, the bad guy got away,” Aiden said easily, he was still wearing a suit so they must have deemed him as somewhat credible because they moved in after a moment. “I’ll leave her to you guys.”  
  
The woman at the end of the alleyway watched them for a moment before turning away. Aiden immediately headed after her, wanting to ask some question, and he felt her jump up to what had to be the fire escape of a building in a single leap.  
  
Aiden rounded the corner and looked up as she skipped over the edge of the roof.  
  
“Hell no,” Aiden said, amused, “I’m not that easy.”  
  
Everyone already knew he was an alien, so it wasn’t like he really needed to hide it. Aiden dashed up into the air and landed on the ledge of the same roof with a small burst of Ki. The pale green hero spun around almost before he had landed.  
  
“You’re a metahuman?” She asked curiously.  
  
“Something like that,” Aiden said easily, “I’m surprised you didn’t recognize me, I’ve been on the news quite a bit lately.”  
  
The woman relaxed fractionally but made no move to approach him.  
  
“Aiden, everyone thinks I'm an alien, but I'm just really handsome,” Aiden introduced, “What's your name, hero?”  
  
“Enkidu,” Enkidu said, amused, “Humble, aren’t you?”  
  
“I don’t want to hear that from a woman who calls themselves _Enkidu_ ,” Aiden laughed, “Try not to piss off any gods, yeah?”  
  
“I’ll keep it in mind, but who knows what could happen?” Enkidu said easily. “Thanks for the distraction down there, that guy was a handful.”  
  
“He got away?” Aiden guessed. “Who was he?”  
  
He doubted she would have come back straight away if she had captured him, or at least brought him with her.  
  
“Yes, unfortunately,” Enkidu admitted, “Onomatopoeia, a serial killer.”  
  
Aiden couldn’t recall ever having heard of the villain, but then again, he hadn’t heard about Enkidu either.  
  
“Who was the other woman that he was trying to kill?” Aiden asked curiously. “I didn’t recognize her either, honestly can’t at least _one_ of you be famous? How am I supposed to brag about this if nobody even knows who you are?”  
  
“Virago,” Enkidu laughed, “You can brag about helping her, I suppose, she’s been making waves recently.”  
  
Somehow he had missed her in the news then, that was annoying, he would have to start adding an hour worth of hero/villain research to his daily routine. He didn’t want to run into some random villain who could kill him with a glance or something.  
  
“How come I haven’t heard of you?” Aiden asked curiously, “Pretty memorable name.”  
  
“I only started this year,” Enkidu said easily. “Why does everyone think you’re an alien?”  
  
A new hero, that would be why then, he didn’t have an exhaustive knowledge of DC, he knew the big names and the interesting ones, but there were likely thousands here that hadn’t even been covered in any form of media.  
  
“Don’t you watch the news?” Aiden said, bemused, “That spaceship that crashed into Lake Michigan, I was in it.”  
  
“Oh, so everyone thinks you’re an alien because you came from _space_.” Enkidu said archly, “Where on earth did they get _that_ idea?”  
  
“Hilarious,” Aiden rolled his eyes, “I was abducted, experimented on, and now here I am, back on earth. What's your story? Metahuman? An experiment gone wrong? Power of an ancient god? Wizard? _Witch?_ Tell me if I’m getting warmer.”  
  
“ _All of them_ obviously,” Enkidu said, smirking, “I’m also the secret love child of Lex Luther and Superman, as well as an android created to destroy the Justice League _and_ the chosen one who is destined to vanquish all evil from the world.”  
  
“That’s a rough beginning, huh?” Aiden snickered, “Makes just being a fake alien pretty tame in comparison.”  
  
“Sorry, not everyone's origin story is as cool as mine,” Enkidu said smugly, before tilting her head. “Why’d you chase me down anyway, are you planning on becoming a hero? Wanted some tips?”  
  
“Absolutely,” Aiden said wryly, “Teach me to be a really cool hero who catches _all_ of the villains _just_ like you!”  
  
“Dick,” Enkidu said, annoyed. “Think you could have done any better?”  
  
Aiden would probably have gotten shot several times, but he could have bulled his way through it and pinned the guy, probably, but the other woman would have been shot during the process, though if he wasn’t fast enough.  
  
“Probably not, I’ve never done something like this before,” Aiden said easily, “I wouldn’t have done any worse, though.”  
  
“The safe answer, huh?” Enkidu said dryly, “Want to tag along with me next time I’m on patrol, get some experience?”  
  
Aiden didn’t have any intention of being a hero, at least at the moment, but the experience would be invaluable, and he wouldn’t likely get this offer from anyone else easily.  
  
“You know what?” Aiden said thoughtfully, “I think I will.”  
  
“Huh,” Enkidu said slowly, “Nobody ever accepts in the movies.”  
  
“This isn’t a movie, dumbass.” Aiden said smugly, “When and where?”  
  


* * *

  
_Philadelphia, 4:04 PM.  
April 2nd, 2010._  
  
“I already told you why I missed it,” Aiden said dryly, “Mandatory doesn’t mean you couldn’t have rescheduled it for the next day, _you_ chose not to follow up after I failed to answer a single phone call.”  
  
“ _I am aware_ , I am _simply_ reiterating the importance of these meetings,” Dinah said curtly.  
  
“No, you’re _simply_ repeating the same thing hoping for a concession that I am not going to give you,” Aiden said idly.  
  
“Very well,” Dinah said, annoyed. “You were involved in an incident with metahumans, explain it to me.”  
  
“Didn’t you read the report over Batman's shoulder?” Aiden said, amused but answered anyway. “A guy called, uh, Onomonopeter or something, ambushed a hero called Virago, shes new apparently, and another hero called Enkidu chased him off before he could kill her.”  
  
“How did you become involved?” Dinah said seriously.  
  
“I heard the gunshots and decided to see what was going down,” Aiden said easily.  
  
“Why would you go _towards_ gunfire?” Dinah said immediately.  
  
“Well, _obviously_ someone was being shot at,” Aiden said obnoxiously. “I wanted to see if anybody needed help.”  
  
“You weren’t worried about being shot?” Dinah asked calmly.  
  
Aiden almost sighed the same thing as every other time, questions designed to fish out anything revealing about him. They knew about his ‘super strength’ because of the incident with Diana, and despite Emil’s assurance that none of his medical data would be shown to _anybody,_ he was almost positive they had the results of his scans.  
  
“Nah,” Aiden said casually.  
  
There was a long pause as he brushed the entire question off, locking her out of gaining any knowledge without pressuring him again, but surprisingly this time, she bulled ahead anyway.  
  
“You weren’t worried about being shot, interesting,” Dinah said sharply, “Is it because you are immune to bullets, or something else? Perhaps an ability to evacuate an area in a hurry?”  
  
They had seen him flying at some point, obviously, either when he followed Enkidu up onto the roof, or it was confirmation that they _had_ bugged his old apartment.  
  
“You’re a bit more energetic today,” Aiden said curiously, “Someone asks you to apply some more pressure than usual?”  
  
“You didn’t answer the question,” Dinah said evenly, “Avoiding such a simple question could be an indication that I’m on the right track.”  
  
“I could have sworn I agreed to _therapy_ sessions, not another interrogation.” Aiden laughed, “Besides, I thought that was Diana’s gig?”  
  
“Even metahumans aren’t comfortable with the idea of being shot at if they do not have a way to survive the experience,” Dinah brushed past his attempt to derail her, “You have shown a complete lack of worry towards the idea, it’s a pretty safe assumption to make.”  
  
“If you say so, Big D,” Aiden said idly.  
  


* * *

  
_Philadelphia, 2:58 PM.  
April 16th, 2010._  
  
“Busy month, huh?” Aiden said good-naturedly, “How are you holding up?”  
  
“Busy is understating it,” Tracy said tiredly, “The upside is that it's all behind me now, I can start playing catchup on your commission.”  
  
“I don’t mind pushing it back another week if you need some time to get yourself back together,” Aiden said easily.  
  
“Absolutely not,” Tracy denied, “When your next appointment with Emil?”  
  
“Four days from now,” Aiden said easily.  
  
“Oh,” Tracy deflated, “The next one?”  
  
“Uh, twentieth of next month again, probably,” Aiden said curiously.  
  
“I’ll _definitely_ have it finished by then,” Tracy said firmly.  
  
“Sounds good to me,” Aiden laughed.  
  


* * *

  
_Philadelphia, 10:04 AM.  
April 20th, 2010._  
  
“So was there a change between the first scan and the second?” Aiden asked curiously after pleasantries had been addressed.  
  
“There most definitely was,” Emil said evenly, “The mutated cells have increased in quantity, some other clusters _are_ appearing as well, but they are far more scattered than those two points.”  
  
“Any idea what they do?” Aiden asked curiously, they were _probably_ the S-cells. “Do we need to do the test for space cancer?”  
  
“What a ridiculous notion, there is no such thing,” Emil snorted, “Without being able to observe a sample, I couldn’t tell you exactly what they are doing.”  
  
“Fine,” Aiden huffed, “I’ll let you take your damn sample, but I _swear_ Emil-”  
  
“I will not break patient confidentiality,” Emil said immediately, “Not even for the Justice League, you need not fear.”  
  
“Have you met them?” Aiden said dryly, “They have mind readers and guys who can see through walls, hell I haven’t even _given_ you the sample yet, but I’m pretty sure Batman somehow already has it.”  
  
“I understand your concern completely, but I assure you they are not _nearly_ as omniscient as you seem to believe,” Emil laughed, he actually _laughed_. “Rest assured, I will endeavor to make sure it is kept out of their hands.”  
  


* * *

  
_Philadelphia, 4:17 PM.  
April 23rd, 2010._  
  
“I don’t know where _you_ are based, but did you see that report on that snowman guy who’s going around robbing places?” Aiden said, laughing, “Villians are _ridiculous_ , somehow smart enough to make a power suit, and they use it to steal from a _pawn shop_.”  
  
It was ludicrous, why not just sell the damn power suit? The guy could be sitting on enough money to make a _dozen_ of them afterward, what did he get at a pawn shop? A couple hundred at most?  
  
“I saw a mention of it,” Dinah said idly, “But I’m not seeing your point.”  
  
“Why don’t you get one of your rich buddies to _hire_ all these crazy scientists?” Aiden spelled it out for her, “Set them up with all the equipment they need, give them a ton of recognition in the media to feed their egos, but have them pumping out useful things, like green energy, or fixing global warming, that has to be a better idea then just beating them up every couple of weeks surely?”  
  
“I couldn’t tell you the motivations of superheroes,” Dinah said stoically, “I do not interact with them directly, I am simply a therapist on contract.”  
  
Aiden rolled his eyes.  
  
“Fine, what were you saying before we got off track?” Aiden huffed.  
  


* * *

  
_Philadelphia, 2:37 PM.  
April 30th, 2010._  
  
“I’m just painting it, but it's completely functional,” Tracy said, sounding pleased with herself. “Most of the work was just trying to reverse the effect.”  
  
“You’re amazing, Tracy,” Aiden said genuinely, “How much did you manage to increase the force of it?”  
  
Aiden could almost hear her preening at the attention.  
  
“It's able to increase local gravity on the wearer by five times,” Tracy said easily, “That’s all you’re getting out of the power sources I have available anyway.”  
  
“That’s pretty incredible,” Aiden said honestly, “When I’ve outgrown it, I’ll have to commission you to make something stronger.”  
  
“Like that room, you were talking about?” Tracy asked curiously, “It would be pretty expensive, and you would need somewhere to store it while it's being built, and afterward.”  
  
“I didn’t think it would be cheap,” Aiden said honestly, “Think you could make something like that, given enough funds?”  
  
“ _Unlimited_ funds?” Tracy said cheekily, “Easily.”  
  
“I’ll make sure to call you up once I shave my head and change my name to Luthor then,” Aiden said dryly.  
  
Tracy laughed.


	7. Chapter 7

Philadelphia, 7:37 PM.  
May 9th, 2010.  
  
Aiden was downtown, getting a late second dinner when he received a text from an unknown number.  
  
“Patrol. You down? Same place we met, Eight.” Aiden murmured out loud.  
  
Enkidu obviously, or someone pretending to be her if he was being exceptionally paranoid. He had told her he would join her the next time, and if he blew her off this time, he likely wouldn’t receive another invite.  
  
Aiden looked down at his teriyaki and sighed, looks like he would be getting fast food at whatever was open after midnight. He settled up his check before heading back towards the rooftop, assuming she had meant there and not down in the alleyway. It was at least a ten-minute walk from where he was, so he took it at a leisurely pace thinking.  
  
Patrol. He should probably have found something to conceal his identity, running around in a suit would look pretty strange. Then again, what were they going to do? Arrest him for running around at night in a suit? It wasn’t like there was a curfew, and he could just push all the blame on Enkidu if something actually went down, her identity was still secure.  
  
He should probably still wear a mask, at least.  
  


* * *

  
“Superman, what are you doing here?” Enkidu said incredulously.  
  
Aiden rolled his eyes behind the dollar store mask before planting his fists on his hips and thrusting his chest out.  
  
“I’ve come to fight crime,” Aiden said cheerfully, “With my cute little sidekick, Enki!”  
  
“You’re the sidekick here,” Enkidu said, amused. “Besides, I’ve already seen your face, and I am definitely older than you.”  
  
“I’m twenty-six,” Aiden scoffed, “How old are you, eighteen on your best day?”  
  
Enkidu let out a startled laugh.  
  
“Nineteen actually,” Enkidu said, annoyed, “There is no way your twenty-six, I refused to believe it.”  
  
Aiden grinned at her from behind supermans heroic smile.  
  
“Come on then sidekick,” Aiden said triumphantly, “Let's go clean up this city!”  
  
“You’re the sidekick.” Enkidu shot back with a laugh before she turned and sprinted across the rooftop.  
  
Aiden took off after her, she was far faster than any human he had ever seen before, and the leap that carried her from the rooftop, across the road, and onto the next building showed her strength was easily above it as well. Aiden himself cleared the jump easily, the landing was a little bit rougher given his lack of experience with this kind of thing, but it was easy.  
  
The feeling of flying was amazing, he knew, even just gliding around in his apartment sometimes put him in a good mood for the rest of the day, but this was something else entirely. Judging the distance to the next building, he leaped after Enkidu again, and this time when he touched down, it was a seamless transition back into running.  
  
Aiden grinned, jumping through the air, no safety net beneath him, it was a rush that he hoped he never got used to.  
  
“Why are you cackling like a villain?” Enkidu said, bemused, “Am I going to have to take you in?”  
  
“Sorry, the first time I’ve been able to really test out what I can do properly,” Aiden laughed, “It’s a lot more fun then I expected.”  
  
“Fun?” Enkidu murmured to herself, but he still managed to hear it. “I suppose it does feel pretty good.”  
  
Aiden grinned to himself as they cleared the next building, spreading his focus out around him to sense the locations of everyone nearby. His Ki-sense had increased in range slowly since he had first discovered it, and when he was focusing on it, he could extend that range pretty deep into the city.  
  
Even so, it wasn’t his Ki-sense that picked up on the first interesting thing of the night.  
  
The screech of tires halfway across the city, too far away for anyone with normal hearing to notice, followed by a gunshot and the sound of glass shattering drew his attention. Aiden immediately broke off to head in that direction, and Enkidu changed her own route to follow him without comment.  
  
“Notice something?” Enkidu said seriously, easily keeping pace with him.  
  
“Gunshot, shattering glass and a car,” Aiden said thoughtfully. “Could be a robbery? Or a hit and run? Road rage?”  
  
“All of the above?” Enkidu said curiously, “You heard that from all the way back there? Enhanced senses too, huh?”  
  
“Yeah,” Aiden said easily, realizing he couldn’t really deny it now. “I’m the full package, baby.”  
  
Enkidu laughed at the terrible line, and Aiden gave her a flash of Superman’s pearly whites.  
  
“You look ridiculous.” Enkidu said, amused, “How close are we, wait, I think I can hear it now.”  
  
Enkidu took the lead again, speeding up on an angle to intercept where the car was headed.  
  
“See if there's anything where the shots occurred, could be injured!” Enkidu called back.  
  
“I’m on it!” Aiden confirmed, angling back towards where the shot had come from and speeding up again.  
  
The thought of someone actually having been shot had somehow been lost in his excitement, and he made a promise to himself to not lose himself too much in the adrenaline from now on. Aiden reached the road that the car had been on and scanned the street below as he skipped across the rooftops.  
  
There were a police car lights flashing but no sirens; it had been rammed into a streetlamp that had folded straight down on top of it. Aiden leaped straight off the building and landed next to the car, and he could see an officer in the front seat trying to shimmy his way into the passenger seat, but the cabin had crumpled enough to make it an arduous task.  
  
“Hey officer, I’m going to move this post,” Aiden called out to the man, “Keep your head down for a second! You ready?”  
  
“Ready.” The man called back, somewhat muffled.  
  
Aiden took hold of the end and floated up into the air until he was high enough for it to clear the roof of the vehicle and bent it back in the other direction, before dropping it onto the sidewalk. It barely seemed to weigh a thing to him, and there was no struggle at all. Aiden could hear the officer talking quietly to someone over his radio.  
  
Aiden couldn’t help but grin.  
  
“Alright, the post is gone, want me to peel the roof back?” Aiden projected his voice, he wasn’t going down for damaging a cop vehicle.  
  
“Yeah, it's totaled anyway, go ahead.” The officer said easily, “What's your name anyway?”  
  
Aiden peeled the roof upwards with barely any effort and grinned at the man inside.  
  
“Superman,” The officer barked out a laugh, “I can’t believe I didn’t recognize you.”  
  
Aiden laughed as well, this mask was paying dividends. He tore some more metal out of the way to free the man up to get his legs out, his left foot seemed injured, before helping the man to climb out of the mess.  
  
“You going to go after those bastards?” The officer grunted as he sat back on the hood of his patrol car.  
  
“Enkidu, a local hero, is taking care of that,” Aiden said easily.  
  
“Never heard of an ‘Enkidu,’” The officer said distractedly.  
  
“She’s the one who saved Virago, and fought that Onomopeter guy off a while back, she doesn’t get enough credit,” Aiden said easily. “You should put in a good word for her, she could use the goodwill.”  
  
“I’ll put it in the report,” The officer barking out another laugh, “You, her agent?”  
  
“Of course,” Aiden said immediately, “but please, call me Superman.”  
  
The officer snorted.  
  
“What were the baddies after anyway?” Aiden asked curiously, “Or was it a hit and run?”  
  
“Robbed a jeweler a couple of streets over,” The officer said as he peeled back his pants leg to take a look at his leg.  
  
Aiden glanced over at it for a moment, lots of blood, and a deep cut, but it didn’t look too bad; it would definitely hurt to walk on, though.  
  
“Need me to call you an ambulance?” Aiden offered.  
  
“Already radioed it in, thanks, though.” The officer said gratefully.  
  
Aiden just nodded, studying the wrecked car with interest. Didn’t they have Kinect shields and stuff? There was that one hero woman, uh, Rocket? She had a shield that blocked kinetic energy, and they had to have some kind of inertia dampeners with all the space ships.  
  
“Out of curiosity, do the police ever buy high tech gear of all these crazy scientists running around?” Aiden asked curiously. “Better body armor? Energy shields? That kind of thing?”  
  
“Pretty random question,” The officer said, bemused, “Depends, it's not really the kind of thing you’d find in a patrol car either way if that’s what you mean.”  
  
“It was,” Aiden agreed, “Why hasn’t someone come up with some kind of high-tech safety solution for car crashes?”  
  
“They are too busy making ridiculous things like giant robots, lasers, and cryoguns.” The man said honestly, “I don’t think the thought of making some useful for society ever crosses any of these crazies minds.”  
  
“Seems like such a waste,” Aiden said honestly.  
  


* * *

  
Philadelphia, 6:37 PM.  
May 11th, 2010.  
  
“Who are you?” A female reported, asked excitedly, stuffing her microphone in his face.  
  
“I’m Superman, obviously,” Aiden laughed.  
  
“That’s definitely not the suit Superman usually wears,” The reporter said amused.  
  
“That’s because this time, Superman means business,” Aiden said cheesily.  
  
“Well, Superman,” The woman laughed, “Can you tell us what business transpired here tonight?”  
  
“Of course,” Aiden said confidently, “A local hero called Enkidu noticed that something was amiss, and she quickly organized a response, I was sent to make sure Officer Gregory here, a good man who definitely needs a promotion, was alright, while Enkidu, a very heroic individual might I say, took it upon herself to stop the criminals from further terrorizing the city.”  
  
“That’s incredible! We’ve had reports of an unknown female hero stopping the getaway car halfway across the city.” The reporter said excitedly.  
  
“That would be the local hero, Enkidu, one of the most dedicated and impressive people I have ever met, she wears a pale green costume for those who haven’t had the opportunity to see her yet, she is truly an inspiration to us all,” Aiden said calmly, inside he was trying not to laugh. “I can say with certainty that she has the Superman thumbs up of approval!”  
  
Aiden turned and looked at the camera, holding both thumbs up cheesily, the plastic superman mask looking absolutely ridiculous over the top of his black business suit.  
  
The monitor clicked off.  
  
“I can’t tell if I should be annoyed or flattered,” Superman said wryly. “You seem pretty convinced it’s him.”  
  
“I’ve located footage of him crossing the city in the exact same suit, only several minutes prior,” Batman said simply, “Another camera picked up both Aiden and ‘Enkidu’ barely a block away from the alleyway he vanished into.”  
  
“I’ve had enough conversations with the man that I would recognize his voice anywhere,” Black Canary said resignedly, “It’s him.”  
  
“Do we know anything about this ‘Enkidu?’” Flash asked curiously, “I can’t recall having heard of her before.”  
  
“I’ve heard of her!” Captain Marvel said cheerfully, “She only appeared in Philadelphia sometime at the start of this year, but shes stopped a lot of crimes already.”  
  
“She was the other person involved in that Virago incident as well,” Green arrow said pleasantly, “They chased off that bastard Onomonopeia, they can’t be too bad surely?”  
  
“The man somehow knows the identities of all of us, he’s certainly dropped enough hints about my own.” Black Canary said dryly. “In his defense, I still do not think he has any intention of revealing any of them.”  
  
“He could change his mind at any point,” Batman said seriously, “We will need to investigate Enkidu.”  
  
“In case he has revealed anything to her?” Superman sighed, “Are we going to scrutinize every single person he talks to, he hasn’t done anything wrong yet.”  
  
“It will be too late to act afterward if he does intend to reveal your names.” Wonder Woman said calmly, “I personally do not believe he intends to, not unless pushed to act.”  
  
Batman leaned back against his chair.  
  
“You’re saying we should allow him to go completely unchecked?” Batman said seriously.  
  
“Not completely, no.” Wonder Woman said evenly.  
  
You’re already doing weekly sessions with him,” Flash said thoughtfully, “Monthly check-ups as well, whos handling that?”  
  
“Emil Hamilton,” Superman said easily, “He is the one who took care of Power Girl when she first arrived here.”  
  
“I’ve heard the name,” Batman said seriously, “He’s the director of STAR. Labs, Metropolis?”  
  
“That’s the one,” Superman confirmed, “He's a good guy, incredibly intelligent too.”  
  
“Could we ask him for a sneak peek at the guy's files?” Green arrow said cheekily, “See if there's anything interesting?”  
  
“He is not currently our enemy,” Wonder Woman said immediately, frowning. “That is extremely unethical.”  
  
“I was only joking!” Green arrow said defensively, “Relax!”  
  


* * *

  
Philadelphia, 8:18 PM.  
May 11th, 2010.  
  
Aiden snatched his phone up when it dinged, idly reading the message before responding.  
  
  
  
Aiden laughed, the power of wearing a mask was real, he would have never said half the things he had if his real face had been attached to it. They hadn’t managed to group back up that night, but there was always next time. Aiden had enjoyed himself way too much, and he knew that he would get dragged into the superhero lifestyle for good if he didn’t keep on his guard.  
  
He had been trying to figure out how to get some initial clientele for his super-powered bodyguard idea, but it was thoroughly evading him. He couldn’t just market it like he would some other service or product, he needed to find some people who wanted protection and then get them to spread the word.  
  
Aiden briefly considered just rocking up at Lex Luthor's building and asking if he needed a bodyguard, but from what Aiden could remember he already had that Mercy woman working for him, he could even go ask Bruce Wayne, but Batman might take either of those as a hostile action, as funny as it would be.  
  
He needed someone who had connections but needed protection from something, someone who could be needled into marketing him to those same connections. Aiden would need to establish an identity that he could use to sell his services.  
  
People had already seen him on the news wearing a business suit and a superman mask, but he could find a better mask. That should give him a little bit of a kick start, but he still needed to find an easy first mark.  
  
“This is the second jewelry store robbery in this month, by two different criminals,” The caster said unamused, “The first robbery was thwarted by the now recovered Virago, but the culprit the Blue Snowman, managed to get away a second time. The other unrelated robbery was stopped by the hero who has taken Philadelphia by storm, Enkidu.”  
  
“The police have released several statements about the robberies already, but we are no closer to finding answers.” The second caster said more cheerfully, “I’m just glad there another female hero out there!”  
  
Aiden still couldn’t believe the nonsense these scientists got up to, he briefly considered trying to have a discussion with the villain, maybe he could convince her to do something worthwhile.  
  
Aiden doubted it would help, surely they rationalized themselves into these decisions in the first place, even if he couldn’t see the reasoning from an outside perspective, there probably was a reason that at least they considered valid.  
  
Aiden tried to think of what a villain who had cryo-tech could do with it, some kind of heating or cooling system designed to be used with another tech? Surely that would be worth something here, even if there were alternatives already on the market. Cryogenic systems to keep donated organs fresh, was that possible? There was probably money to be made there as well.  
  
Aiden frowned at the security footage that showed Virago chasing the Blue Snowman through the building. The guy wasn’t even trying to fight back, simply run away apparently, maybe he should hunt him down and offer to be the villain's bodyguard, surely he had to know some important people that he could connect him to jump-start his career in super-powered protecting. All the villains knew each other, right? Probably not, but even if the guy declined, he could just beat him up and threaten to take him to the police if he didn’t give him some names.  
  
The job would probably be a low paying one, considering the guy was stealing from jewelers and pawnshops, worst case scenario he could steal the guy's armor and try and sell that. Aiden grinned, warming himself up to the idea. It would also scratch the new, ever-present itch of wanting to run around the city that had popped up after that first night out with Enkidu.  
  
Best case scenario he found himself a couple of clients, worst case scenario he got to beat up a villain and made some money selling the suit.  
  
What could go wrong?


	8. Chapter 8

_STAR. Labs, Philadelphia, 9:58 AM.  
May 20th, 2010._  
  
“Aiden, there you are,” Emil Hamilton said briskly, “Come in and sit down.”  
  
“Nice to see you too, Emil,” Aiden rolled his eyes, following the man's directions “Tracy not here yet?”  
  
“She is downstairs, I’ve sent her off to buy coffee,” Emil said distractedly as he clicked through screens on his computer. “A ruse, of course.”  
  
“How cunning,” Aiden snorted, “You have something medical-related you want to discuss in private first then?”  
  
“Obviously,” Emil said simply, “You were right to be wary of the moonlight, I exposed a portion of the sample to a concentrated amount of it and almost immediately found out that it was a terrible idea.”  
  
“Did it explode or something?” Aiden laughed.  
  
“It boiled almost immediately on exposure and evaporated,” Emil said, annoyed. “I was, however, able to get several readings of the process, the refracted light puts the cells in an incredibly excited state, and the few mutated cells that were present in the sample were affected more potently.”  
  
“Evaporated?” Aiden frowned, “I’ll admit I don’t know much about this kind of thing, but that seems strange, given that when I’m exposed to it, I’m pretty sure that I won’t evaporate.”  
  
“There is some element missing which stops the cells from undergoing any type of change. Instead, this is the reaction, but I have no idea what it could possibly be,” Emil said, frowning. “I’ve run multiple tests with a multitude of different factors, and nothing has changed the results in the slightest.”  
  
“Probably because there's no Ki left in the sample,” Aiden said thoughtfully.  
  
Emil turned around in his chair to frown at him.  
  
“What is Ki?” Emil said, intrigued. “Some form of chemical?”  
  
“It’s ‘life energy’ produced by living things,” Aiden said smoothly, “Almost everyone I’ve come across has a tiny amount of it.”  
  
“How do you know this-” Emil started, “No, obviously you can detect it in some manner, it isn’t the tail, nor is it the mutated cells, possibly through some use of the energy itself?”  
  
Aiden raised an eyebrow at the man; he’d been underestimating how quick the man was.  
  
“I’m using my own energy to sense the energy of others,” Aiden confirmed, “You also have a small amount if you were curious.”  
  
“It must be a ludicrously small amount for nobody to have found it yet.” Emil said, frowning, “I’ve never encountered such energy before.”  
  
Aiden lifted his hand up, so his palm was facing the roof, and focused a small portion of his Ki to collect above his hand, the Ki sparked to life in a tiny orb barely the size of a large marble.  
  
“Remarkable.” Emil said with great interest, “You can use it so freely? Is this also where your increased physicality comes from?”  
  
“I think so, although whatever was done to me might contribute in some way.” Aiden gestured down at the tail hidden in his pants. “This is another of those don’t tell the league things.”  
  
“Obviously,” Emil huffed, still staring at the orb. “I would like to collect a reading of this energy, and you said I myself have access to this?”  
  
“I doubt you could even feel it given how little everybody but me seems to have,” Aiden said honestly.  
  
“Would my own amount be the average? Yes?” Emil accepted his nod as an answer, “If my own amount was a single unit of energy, how many times greater is your own?”  
  
Aiden frowned at the question, how was he supposed to figure that out?  
  
“I couldn’t give you a specific number, but it's several thousand times the size of your own,” Aiden said, frowning. “It’s like a drop of water next to a swimming pool.”  
  
“Interesting,” Emil said seriously. “Your hypothesis that this ‘Ki’ is the stabilizing factor could be accurate, but we will need numerous tests to confirm it.”  
  
Aiden reabsorbed the Ki when they were interrupted by a knock on the door.  
  
“I’m coming in!” Tracy called out cheerfully before opening the door. “This secret boys club is over!”  
  
Emil sighed and leaned back against his chair.  
  
“Hm,” Aiden said amused, “Maybe we should kick her out so I can tell you some more of my sec-”  
  
“Not a chance!” Tracy declared before crossing the room and pushing two takeaway coffee containers into their hands. “I’ve waited for over a month for that ‘amazing secret,’ the suspense is killing me.”  
  
“If I’m exposed to the light of a full moon, I turn into a giant monkey,” Aiden said easily. “Ooo Ooo, Aaa, Aaa.  
  
“What?” Tracy said, confused, “That doesn’t make any sense.”  
  
“The refracted light from a full moon contains a precise amount of energy his body uses to undergo a rapid change, the energy excites each of the cells and through-some unknown mechanism that stabilizes the growth-each cell expands and transforms in an exponential way,” Emil said sullenly, “Thus he becomes a giant ape.”  
  
“It messes with my mind too, probably,” Aiden said honestly, “I think I’d attack everything around me, and be unable to stop myself, at least until I managed to master the transformation.”  
  
Emil frowned at the admission.  
  
“That was entirely out of the left field.” Tracy said, amused, “A giant monkey, really? I suppose that explains the tail.”  
  
“Don’t remind me about the tail,” Aiden complained, “I sat on it last night and spent the next three minutes crying.”  
  
Tracy guffawed, and Aiden turned back to Emil.  
  
“Was there any more change to the mutated cells?” Aiden asked curiously.  
  
“More of them, and they continue to spread throughout your body at a moderate rate.” Emil said offhandedly, “The rate is changing, but if it stayed at the original rate, it would have reached every cell within a decade.”  
  
“Ten years, huh?” Aiden said thoughtfully.  
  
“With the increased spread, how long will it take now?” Tracy asked curiously.  
  
“Six or seven years,” Emil said evenly, meeting Aiden’s eyes. “It's likely to speed up further, depending on the cause.”  
  
Message received, Ki use was probably responsible for the cells, which was almost a solid confirmation that they were S-Cells and not space cancer. The more he increased his Ki, the more S-cells were generated, and over time he would eventually reach whatever the threshold was to achieve super Saiyan.  
  
“Awesome.” Aiden grinned.  
  
“We still don’t know what the effect of these mutations is. It might not be as ‘awesome’ as you desire.” Emil said evenly, “Unless you also know about it already?”  
  
“Aiden-club secret.” Aiden laughed, “No Emil’s allowed, and _definitely_ no Tracy’s.”  
  
Tracy pouted.  
  
“I will uncover it eventually,” Emil said sharply, “It’s simply a matter of time.”  
  


* * *

  
_Apartment, Philadelphia, 7:37 PM  
May 22st, 2010._  
  
“The Blue Snowman continues his string of robberies in the downtown area, targeting another jewelry store late last night.” Cat Grant said excitedly, standing at the latest crime scene. “But this time he was stopped in his snowshoes by a much needed female addition to the superhero community! Virago!”  
  
The camera panned to show the alleyway next to the jewelry store. There was a sizeable hole that had been somehow made in the wall. It was clearly the method of entry into the store.  
  
“Virago managed to chase off the dastardly Blue Snowman before he could get his icy claws into any of the goods, but he managed to evade capture once again!” Cat said, amused, “I’m almost starting to feel bad for the villain!”  
  
The camera panned again to show the apparent owner of the jewelry store raging at a policewoman.  
  
“How the hell am I supposed to get this fixed?” The owner says incredulously, gesturing at the hole in the wall. “There is no way I’m paying for this! This is fuck-”  
  
The camera quickly swung back to Cat when the man started cursing.  
  
“I’ll make sure to keep you all in the loop on any updates!” Cat said quickly, “This is Cat Grant, sighing off!”  
  


* * *

  
_Belmont Plateau, Philadelphia, 9:58 AM.  
May 25th, 2010._  
  
Aiden fiddled with the collar for a moment, before he finally managed to clip it shut around his neck again. He looked down at the grass and nodded to himself.  
  
“Alright, not breaking any more floorboards here,” Aiden muttered, he was going to have to get that fixed sometime soon. “Collar, level two.”  
  
The collar beeped, and his knees bent under the force that was suddenly pressing down on him, and his feet compressed the dirt slightly.  
  
“Ugh,” Aiden grunted before forcing himself to stand upright with a little bit of effort. “That’s not too bad.”  
  
It was definitely more challenging to move around; an average human would be having a fair amount of trouble right now, he wasn’t anywhere near his limit, however.  
  
“Collar, level three,” Aiden said before grunting at the sudden increase.  
  
It wasn’t particularly ‘heavy’ at least compared to his level to physical strength, but there was force being applied to parts of him that had never experienced it before. He should probably allow himself to grow used to this before trying the next level, but he was pretty sure now that he could have gone straight to five times local gravity even if it would have probably hurt. Aiden could feel his feet starting to depress the grass beneath him, and he wasn’t sure of the exact calculation, but he had to of weighed almost three-hundred kilograms right now.  
  
“This is pretty cool.” Aiden managed, while slowly crouching down.  
  
Aiden moved into a pushup position with some effort; it was definitely a more complicated process than just a regular pushup, of which he could do thousands with no effort, perhaps he should invest in some kind of weight belt to make it even more difficult? He could potentially reinforce some pockets into a coat and fill it with enough weights to make it more cumbersome, but that would be a job for next time.  
  
Aiden made it to almost a thousand pushups before his arms started to give out on him, and he could easily say that he hadn’t sweated this much since he had become a Saiyan.  
  
“Choo, Choo.” Aiden gritted out as he started on crunches. “The, gain, train, is, back, baby.”  
  


* * *

  
_Apartment, Philadelphia, 7:37 PM  
May 27th, 2010._  
  
The search for the Blue Snowman’s next target was tedious. He’d made a list of the previous locations he had recently attacked. Three earlier attacks in the last month, nothing for six months before that. Jewelry Store, Pawn Shop, Jewelry store, Success, failure, failure, respectively. Each of the attacks happened after 10:00 PM, and they were always on a Friday, but separated by several weeks. The first had been on the 23rd of April, and the second was on the 7th of May, the most recent one had been on the 21st of May, almost a week ago now.  
  
While there were only three points of data, there were two apparent patterns that anyone with eyes would have been able to see. Friday, every two weeks, alternated between jewelry stores and pawn shops. If the villain continued his ridiculous pattern, the next robbery attempt would be on Friday, the 4th of June, and a pawn shop would be his target.  
  
Aiden didn’t really think he would be following such a distinctive date pattern on purpose, because no one would be that obvious deliberately; unless they were trying to play a longer game, which actually might be the case.  
  
If that was the pattern he was following, it must have been something to do with his schedule and working around his normal life. Nighttime was also the obvious time to commit a crime, less visibility, and fewer people around to spot you.  
  
The alternating between stores _could_ be explained by the decisions one tended to make when they lost. The first time The Blue Snowman had attempted to rob a jewelry store, he succeeded at it, and then he had switched targets to a pawn store, likely to throw anyone off the trail.  
  
But he had gotten caught by Virago and failed to get anything from there. The next time he went out to steal something, it had probably been under the assumption that he had much better luck at the jewelry store, so he went after a different one. Only Virago had caught him _again_ before he managed to getaway.  
  
What would someone do next? Four options, Four strategies.  
  
Option one was to switch targets again, hoping that Virago wouldn’t expect them to go back to another pawn store. Option two was to attack a jewelry store and hope that Virago kept an eye on pawn shops because of the emerging pattern. The third option was to attack somewhere wholly new, a bank, maybe.  
  
The fourth option was what Aiden would have done if he was in the Blue Snowmans position, attack one of the previous locations again because Virago would expect him to be at one of the other stores. Out of three attempts, the Blue Snowman had only succeeded once, and it was a while ago now, it was also a jewelry store, which would break the established pattern likely muddying the water further.  
  
Aiden knew where he was going on the 4th.  
  


* * *

  
_Alleyway, Philadelphia, 11:04 PM  
June 4th, 2010._  
  
Aiden felt a lance of satisfaction dance through him as his clever reasoning had panned out. It was immediately deflated by the fact that Virago had apparently come to the exact same conclusion. Either Virago was even more clever then Aiden had thought _he_ was, or it had been a pretty simple deduction to make.  
  
Either way, it left him pouting on the rooftop as Virago chased The Blue Snowman around the alleyway. Virago certainly seemed like she had recovered from whatever had been in that dart. Aiden quickly noted that neither of them was particularly fast or strong. Virago had a grappling hook she was using to outmaneuver the armored Blue Snowman.  
  
Funnily enough, The Blue Snowman, despite wearing what appeared to be a powered suit of blue armor, was getting his ass kicked.  
  
“How do you keep finding me!” The Blue Snowman cried incredulously, in a digitized voice.  
  
Virago managed to hook her grappling hook around the villain's large metal boot, and the taut cable sent the Blue Snowman tripping backward onto his back in the alley.  
  
“You’re not as smart as you think, Snowman,” Virago said seriously.  
  
Aiden pouted, he’d been really proud of that deduction too, but apparently, the Blue Snowman was just an idiot. Virago wrangled the villain over onto his armor stomach and was attempting to tie his arms together. Aiden hopes this wasn’t going to get him branded as a villain. Luckily he had already ditched the superman mask.  
  
“Blue Snowman!” Aiden called down off the roof.  
  
Virago moved away from the tied up villain immediately and got her eyes on him, looking almost panicked. Aiden noted they were a peculiar shade of bright blue, very distinctive look what with the white hair sticking up all over the place.  
  
“Who are you?” Virago demanded seriously.  
  
“I’m a bodyguard for hire,” Aiden laughed. “Hey Blue, If you hire me, I’ll protect you for the next hour.”  
  
“How much!?” The Blue Snowman cried in his strange voice.  
  
“You’re kidding me, right?” Virago said, bewildered. “He’s a villain!”  
  
“A bodyguard holds no prejudices!” Aiden smirked. “A thousand an hour, no partial hours, a second over, and you owe me two.”  
  
“That’s practically theft!” Blue Snowman cried in dismay.  
  
“I don’t want to hear that from a thief!’ Aiden called back immediately.  
  
The Blue Snowman let out a digitized whine.  
  
“I’m not letting him walk away again,” Virago said firmly.  
  
“Fine!” The Blue Snowman cried out, “One hour!”  
  
Aiden grinned behind his mask.  
  
“If you come down here, I’m going to have to hurt you,” Virago said seriously, posture tensed.  
  
Aiden actually found the woman pretty intimidating, despite her apparent lack of powers. Regardless, he decided on a plan while he had the chance before nodding to himself and leaping off the roof.  
  
Virago didn’t hesitate and immediately shot her zipline straight at him.  
  
Aiden spun in the air and slipped underneath the cable, as everything seemed to slow down to his senses, he landed in a crouch only feet away from the Hero. Virago was already moving into a savage kick that completely missed him as he darted around her at speed. Aiden clamped his hand down on the Snowmans shoulder and threw him up into a fireman's carry before zipping up into the air with a burst of Ki.  
  
The Snowman was actually not that heavy, given the appearance the thick metal panels gave off, but there was still some weight to him. Aiden spun in the air to take in the area and immediately took off to the west as Virago’s zipline dragged her up onto the roof of the building.  
  
“Get back here!” Virage called, annoyed.  
  
“You’ll never catch us!”The Blue Snowman taunted digitally, still hanging off Aiden's shoulder. “Haven’t you heard of the Flash!?  
  
Aiden grinned under his Flash mask as he tore away from the Hero. Giving her credit, Virago managed to keep up with him for almost a block before he poured on the speed and crossed half the city in an instant.  
  
“Whoa!” The Blue Snowman cried. “Who even are you?!”  
  
“I’m the bodyguard you owe a thousand dollars to, but you can call me Bubbles!” Aiden grinned. “Hey, Blue, I’ll knock five hundred off the hourly rate if you find me some new clients!”  
  
“Deal!” The Blue Snowman said immediately, “I’ll market you to everyone I know! What else do you want? I need more of those discounts!”  
  
“I’ll get back to you on that!” Aiden laughed.


	9. Chapter 9

Philadelphia, 4:17 PM.  
June 11th, 2010.  
  
“Aiden, how do you deal with stress?” Dinah asked calmly.  
  
“Same way as everyone else, I guess,” Aiden said thoughtfully, “I do things I find entertaining.”  
  
“Give me some examples,” Dinah said dryly when he didn’t elaborate.  
  
Aiden fought down a smile.  
  
“I listen to music, I exercise, visit new restaurants, try new foods,” Aiden said smoothly. “Same thing as everybody else, like I said.”  
  
“Interesting,” Dinah said simply, “What did you end up doing after our last interview? Any nightly activities to take your mind of things?”  
  
Busted huh? Well, even if they thought he had helped the Snowman make his getaway, that didn’t mean he had to admit to it. They hadn’t tried to take him in, so they must not have had any actual proof.  
  
“You want to know what I do late at night to relieve stress?” Aiden laughed, “I don’t think that’s the kind of thing I would want to talk to my therapist about.”  
  
He could almost hear her roll her eyes.  
  
“Nothing illegal, I would hope,” Dinah said wryly, killing his joke in its bed.  
  
“Nope,” Aiden said easily, “I’m a good boy, you know? I stayed inside and listened to music all night; I’ve always been a fan of that one song, what’s it called again? Smooth criminal?”  
  
“I’m familiar,” Dinah said dryly.  
  


* * *

  


Apartment, Philadelphia, 9:58 PM.  
June 21st, 2010.  
  
Aiden snatched up his burner phone and glanced at the number, but it said unknown.  
  
“Hello?” Aiden said idly.  
  
“Bubbles, I am contacting you in regards to a job.” A digitized voice said hopefully. “I find myself in need of your uh, protective services?”  
  
Aiden snickered at the sound of his code name; hearing someone else call him it so seriously was hilarious.  
  
“Blue? What's the job this time?” Aiden wondered.  
  
“Uh, the same as last time-hem-at a different location, of course.” The digitized voice said seriously.  
  
“What do you need protection from? Same as last time?” Aiden asked curiously.  
  
“Yes, the same individual. Virago seems to be quite adept at finding me, although I know not how.” The digitized voice said suspiciously.  
  
“Alright, keep in mind I’m only there to provide protection, I will not be assisting in anything else.” Aiden said firmly, “Have you found me any additional clients yet?”  
  
“Uh-not as of right now?” The digitized voice said sheepishly, “Hem-I’ll be handling that business as soon as this job is finished, fear not.”  
  
Aiden frowned at the answer.  
  
“The same rate as last time then,” Aiden declared, “No discount for you.”  
  
A muffled curse floated over the line.  
  
“Very well,” The digitized voice said sullenly.  
  
“Where and when?” Aiden said, amused.  
  


* * *

  
Philadelphia, 11:48 PM.  
June 21st, 2010.  
  
“I’d expect more than an hour's notice for this kind of thing, you know,” Aiden said dryly as he touched down in the alleyway.  
  
“I see I have nothing to fear tonight,” The Blue Snowman bemused, “Not with the Batman protecting me.”  
  
Aiden fought a smile down from behind his new mask. He really needed to do something about the mask situation, but it was a job for another time. The Blue Snowman looked much the same as he had last time, although the scratches and dents that had littered the armor were gone.  
  
“Fixed your armor up, huh? Looking good, Blue.” Aiden said easily.  
  
The Blue Snowman practically preened at the compliment.  
  
“Yes, only an hour or so of work-for someone of my caliber, of course,” Blue said happily, handing over a brown paper bag.  
  
Aiden took it and opened it to find a small stack of hundred dollar bills, his thousand dollars payment.  
  
“Of course,” Aiden said, amused, “Remember if we encounter anything other than Virago, you’re paying me extra.”  
  
“Of course!” Blue said easily, “I doubt we will encounter anyone at all, Bubbles! I’ve got a foolproof plan of attack tonight.”  
  
“Lead the way then,” Aiden said simply.  
  
Blue led them down the alleyway, into another branch where a white van, with what had to be fake license plates, was parked. Aiden assumed he was driving, given that the Snowman immediately climbed into the back, and the van dipped alarmingly from the weight of the suit.  
  
“I’m a driver as well as a bodyguard now, huh?” Aiden rolled his eyes before opening the front door and getting inside. “What if I didn’t know how to drive?”  
  
“Uh-I suppose we would be walking?” Blue said sheepishly, “I’m afraid I cannot fit in the front in my suit.”  
  
Aiden assumed the man had driven here with the suit off in the back, and gotten changed on-site, or had someone else deliver the van to the alley.  
  
“You should come up with some kind of mobility option,” Aiden said easily, pulling out of the alleyway.  
  
“Mobility option?” Blue said thoughtfully. “Did you have something in mind?”  
  
Aiden shrugged, turning onto the main stretch.  
  
“Make some rollerblades or something that fits in the shoes, maybe,” Aiden said distractedly.  
  
“Um-I was kind of going for a theme here.” The Blue Snowman said cagily.  
  
Aiden rolled his eyes.  
  
“You have some crazy ice tech. Use ice skates instead and make the road icy or something.” Aiden suggested.  
  
“Hey, that’s not a bad idea,” Blue said thoughtfully. “Hmm.”  
  
Aiden drove the van towards the destination, as the villain started mumbling to himself about what he might need to make the idea work. There was something absurd about the idea of sticking to a theme when a much easier and more effective idea was present.  
  
Villains really were insane.  
  
At this time of night, there wasn’t a great deal of traffic, which kind of made the white van stand out a bit too much, at least he thought so. The fact that the back end was still dipping low made it even more suspicious.  
  
He followed his client's directions, not really sure where the hell is the city he was now, and pulled them into an alleyway.  
  
“Were here!” The Blue Snowman said, pleased.  
  
The van bounced as the armored man hopped out the back, and Aiden stepped out of the vehicle a moment later. The villain ambled over to the wall of the alleyway and placed a gauntleted hand on it.  
  
Almost immediately, it started freezing over, the growing patch of ice spread in a circular pattern.  
  
Aiden watched, intrigued by the amazing piece of technology; it was like the collar in a way; how the hell could these people generate enough energy for these devices to function with so little space? It was less impressive in the case of the giant armored suit sure, but he’d seen the massive refrigerated rooms they had back home or even liquid nitrogen, but this was something else entirely.  
  
“That should do it!” The Blue Snowman said happily.  
  
The man took a step back before striking the wall with one of his massive hands; the wall shattered into a million pieces and fell to the alleyway floor. Aiden felt a chill go down his spine, and it had nothing to do with the temperature.  
  
He couldn’t help but imagine what that would do to a person if Blue had been less concerned with Virago remaining alive, he might have been able to grab onto the hero and freeze her. Aiden wasn’t even sure he could survive something like that, at least not at his current level of power.  
  
He was pretty sure that he remembered one of the movies that Broly had been in, the guy had been frozen under a lake or something, and later he just woke up without issue, which made absolutely no sense in hindsight.  
  
Yeah, Aiden wasn’t going to test that one out any time soon. He leaned against the wall of the alley, waiting for Blue to return with his loot. This was not quite what he had imagined when he had first thought of providing bodyguard service. If Blue hadn’t sent out some feelers before the next time he called, Aiden might have to ditch the villain. He was playing pretty close to the edge here; hell, he had probably crossed it already.  
  
An alarm suddenly started going off from inside the building, and Aiden stared at the hole in the wall in disbelief. How many robberies had this guy performed exactly? All that experience and he was still setting off alarms? No wonder everybody kept on finding the idiot.  
  
“Jesus Christ, man,” Aiden said as The Blue Snowman scrambled out of the hole. “I thought you were going for stealth?”  
  
“I was!” The digitized voice wailed, “I didn’t mean to! Let’s go before Virago shows up again!”  
  
Now they had to drive away in a god damned suspicious van as well; he should have just flown the guy to his destination.  
  
Blue crawled into the back of the van, and Aiden heard something crack ominously in the undercarriage. He eyed the bottom of the car suspiciously as he climbed into the driver's seat; he didn’t like the sound of that.  
  
“Dude, you should make your suit sleeker, all that weight is useless,” Aiden said idly as he pulled out of the alleyway. “You should probably just rebrand entirely at this point; your reputation is shot.”  
  
“I don’t want to!” The Snowman whined, “I think it's cool.”  
  
Aiden winced at the unintentional pun.  
  
“Just think of how awesome it would be if you were zipping around the city all fast-like in your redesigned sleek blue suit, and everybody was like, whoa that villains so cool! I wish I were as chill as him!” Aiden said with faux excitement.  
  
The Snowman was suspiciously quiet for a long moment, and he glanced up back in the mirror. Blue was nodding thoughtfully to himself with his hand on his chin.  
  
“What would I change my name too?” The Blue Snowman said slowly.  
  
Aiden tried to think back to any of the old mythology stuff relating to Ice or snow, but the only thing that was popping into his head was that god damned pokemon, Articuno. Who was that frost giant guy from Norse myths? He could remember Skadi, the god of mountains and skiing or something silly like that. Wasn’t Loki part Ice-giant or something? He might actually exist here, so it would be best not to suggest that.  
  
Aiden had spent a lot of his free time as a youth looking into all the strange gods and goddesses that ancient cultures had come up with. The strangest one he could remember was the god of hinges, which was hilarious.  
  
“I’m drawing a blank,” Aiden admitted, “There's a bunch of myths about snow monsters, demons, and gods though, just google it.”  
  
“What the heck is a google?” The Blue Snowman said curiously.  
  
“Ugh, I forgot again.” Aiden sighed, “Just-look it up on the internet.”  
  
They arrived back at the original alleyway, and Aiden hopped out of the front seat.  
  
“Are you sure you’re alright from here?” Aiden said curiously, “The hour isn’t up yet; I can stick around until you get back to your lair or whatever.”  
  
“I don’t have a lair,” Blue said imperiously, “Besides, I’ll need to get changed, and I don’t want to reveal my secret identity to you, because it’s a secret.”  
  
“You better find me some clients soon, or I’m going to rip your helmet off and jam it up to your chunky ass Snowman,” Aiden said easily. “Cya.”  
  
“I will-!” The Blue Snowman said quickly, before pausing in outrage. “Hey! My ass isn’t chunky!”  
  
Aiden zipped off into the air, rolling his eyes; Villains were seriously weird.  
  


* * *

  
Apartment, Philadelphia, 6:05 PM.  
July 3rd, 2010.  
  
Aiden rubbed at his eyes tiredly; he felt like he almost had it that time. It was just a matter of building up the required Ki to keep it up for a useful amount of time.  
  
He took a deep breath and brought his Ki forth again, slowly pushing it outwards into a spherical shell that encased him entirely. He scrunched his face up in concentration and slowly raised the amount of Ki until the shell suddenly became visible in the room.  
  
The pale blue energy shield rapidly flickered into visibility; until it slowly started to solidify.  
  
Aiden grit his teeth as he pushed the sphere outwards, and it grew in size slowly until it was almost twice the size. He reached his current limit again and strained as the drain began to bleed his reserves dry. He could keep the drain to a trickle in the normal-sized shield, but as soon as he made it this big, it became a problem.  
  
How the hell Broly had managed to make a shield large enough to encapsulate himself and his dad; while remaining strong enough to survive in space as an untrained baby was _insane_ ; but he was pretty sure they had rewritten that in that later movie.  
  
When he had first attempted to create the shield, he had tanked his Ki in under a minute, but now he could comfortably keep it up the condensed version for almost ten minutes, at least when it wasn’t taking any damage. He wasn’t sure how quickly it would deplete then, but he had a feeling he would find out eventually-  
  
The shield abruptly shattered as he lost control again, and sparkling shards of solidified ki evaporated into motes of light in the air before vanishing. Aiden took a deep breath and brought forth another one, slowly working through the steps to increase its size once more. He was getting better; his progress almost felt tangible in a way; the energy was becoming easier to control the more he used it, and the amount he was wasting was diminishing as well.  
  
He was optimistic that the end result would be a sustained orb of Ki that wouldn’t cost him anything other than the initial cost to keep up, at least when he wasn’t taking damage. He couldn’t be an effective bodyguard without at least _some_ method of protecting his clients from general harm.  
  
The less time he spent beating up heroes, the better, and playing those situations on the defensive was the best course of action longterm.  
  
He had managed to up his collar to level five now, and through a great deal of effort and frustration, he had figured out a way to use it while inside the apartment. He had to keep himself from touching the ground while it was activated, which mean constantly using a precise amount of Ki pushing himself into the air to stop him from falling through the roof of the neighbor below him.  
  
He had to stop, turn the collar off and wait for his Ki to regenerate _all the time_ , but the time he could spend with it on was growing, the more he practiced and the less Ki he uses to keep himself afloat.  
  
Aiden had made some progress on the mask situation as well; if a balaclava and plain white face mask could be considered progress. It would absolutely break as soon as it took so much as a single hit, but his balaclava would conceal him.  
  
What he needed was to needle The Blue Snowman into making him a more durable one of some sort, something metal perhaps, but the villain had been quiet since the last job. Aiden wasn’t sure if this was because he had no intention of fulfilling his end of the bargain, or if he just hadn’t found anyone yet.  
  
Either way, he could survive a couple of months with the money he had accumulated; the free food was a lifesaver in that regard. He would have been completely screwed if he’d had to pay for it himself; he didn’t eat anywhere near the amount that Saiyans had in the show, but it was still several times the normal amount.  
  
He would locate an opportunity eventually, and in the meantime, he would only grow more capable of defending himself and others from the numerous threats that littered this crazy world.  
  
The shield shattered again, and he brought it forth once more.  
  
He’d had another interview with Dinah, and several innocent questions that were trying to get him to admit where he had been during the last Blue Snowman raid. He’d stuck to his guns, and once again, he had come out of it unscathed.  
  
Aiden also had another appointment with Emil Hamilton, who had seemed more energetic then he had seen the man before. His ‘S-cells’ had grown again, but the rate had slowed down somewhat, and Emil had predicted that the rate could speed up or slow down, although the mechanism wasn’t yet understood.  
  
It definitely had to do with his Ki usage, although he was starting to think there was more to it than just that. He had definitely used more of it in the last month than ever before, but the rate had slowed.  
  
It was possible that certain utilisations of Ki contributed to the spread more effectively; his first assumption was that it was an internal vs. external divide. The more Ki he used to enhance his body, the more it spreads, while using Ki outside of his body would cause little to no spread at all.  
  
He had started trying to recreate the Solar Flare, but he was thinking of dropping it for now and coming back to it. He could already think of several things from the source that might be classed as internal useage.  
  
Roshi had that technique that made him swole; it made his muscles massive, which was likely the result of concentrating a massive amount of Ki in his muscles. Trunks, Vegeta, Goku, Freiza and Cell, had all managed to do something similar, although three of them had been in Super Saiyan at the time, while the other two were just obscenely powerful. Broly got massively swole as a result of his transformation, and Garlic Junior could do something similar as well; there were probably others he was forgetting, but increased muscle mass via Ki use seemed fairly common.  
  
There was that one bigass namek in one of the movies who could somehow increase his _size_ to that of a giant as well, which was a lot like the giant ape form, at least in that one regard. Where did that mass come from? Where does it _go_?  
  
Aiden shook his head and concentrated again.  
  
Tien and Piccolo could split into multiple forms with the multiform technique, which might well count as internal. He’d done something to split his Ki back when he was first messing with it, which might be a good lead on how to go about uncovering that one.  
  
Sweat rolled down the side of his face as he struggled to hold the expanded energy shield up. He had plenty of time to figure it all out; there was no need to rush.


	10. Chapter 10

Apartment, Philadelphia, 11:30 AM.  
July 4th, 2010.  
  
“It’s a snow day today, but it isn’t even snowing!” Cat Grant said wryly, “We have been getting reports all day about an ongoing attack by a series of ice-related villains.”  
  
The collar hummed as it powered down, and Aiden allowed himself to drop back down to the floor.  
  
“In an astounding show of co-ordination, a multitude of villains have staged an assault on several different cities,” Cat Grant continued, “Mr. Freeze attacked Gotham City park before he was apprehended, Icicle Jr was stopped in Star City, Killer Frost was caught after an attack in Pearl Harbour, Captain Cold was shut down in Central City.”  
  
A chill ran down his spine. Four different villains attacking throughout the same day in different places? His phone felt heavy when he snatched it up off the table and dialed a number.  
  
“Is this all part of a greater plan? Is this just the beginning?” Cat Grant asked steadily, “Will more attacks still occur-”  
  
“Bubbles?” The Blue Snowman’s voice came through the line.  
  
He must have caught the man at a strange time because the digitized voice wasn’t on, but he was clearly attempting to disguise his voice by making it about a thousand times deeper.  
  
The base voice was strangely high as well; was the Blue Snowman actually a kid? That would explain the fixation on snow themed stuff at least a little bit.  
  
“Please tell me you aren’t planning on attacking somewhere in the city today,” Aiden said wearily.  
  
“Uh,” Blue coughed, “I was planning on calling you tonight about another job? How did you know?”  
  
“Cancel it, idiot.” Aiden said immediately, “Turn on the news; Ice villains are going down like flies today, don’t risk it, alright? You still haven’t found me a client yet.”  
  
Although he was starting to think that was never going to pan out, he might as well excommunicate him.  
  
“Really-Uh,” The villain coughed again, his voice had gone strangely higher-pitched for a minute there, “Thanks for the heads up, Bubbles. I’ve got a lead on that front, but it will take about a week before I find out.”  
  
Huh, maybe he would wait a little while after all  
  
“Fine,” Aiden said evenly, “Don’t go out in costume, or I’ll capture you myself.”  
  
He didn’t bother waiting for the kid to reply, instead; hanging up and dropping down onto his sofa with a sigh.  
  
Fucking villains.  
  


* * *

  
Apartment, Philadelphia, DC, 2:00 PM.  
July 4th, 2010.  
  
He stared at the screen curiously; Robin, Aqualad, Speedy, Kid Flash, and a blonde girl with a white costume and a red cape were all being led into the Hall of Justice in Washington DC.  
  
So he’d been partially wrong about where he was, kind of?  
  
After he had figured out he was in a world with Wonder Woman, Superman, and Batman; he’d put it down to being in ‘DC’ and hadn’t thought much more about it; the mystery had been solved.  
  
But he’d seen this scene before, a long time ago, the Ice villain attack should have tipped him off, but he hadn’t been in the mystery-solving mindset at the time; he’d simply thought that villains were all stupid.  
  
It was pretty obvious that this was one of the first scenes of Young Justice, which he’d never watched more than the first season of, along with some of the fights in passing. He couldn’t remember much of the show either, other than Superboy, Miss Martian, and uh, Artemis? Ended up joining that team soon after.  
  
It had been over a decade since he’d seen the show, so his memory was pretty foggy, but he was still a million percent sure that there hadn’t been a blonde with a pixie cut there.  
  
“Even so,” Aiden murmured. “Who was the main villain?”  
  
Had Bane been there; on an island or something? That magical helmet debacle was a thing as well, with the wizard dude inside it who wanted to steal people's souls or something.  
  
It was probably Lex Luthor; that guy was always evil, and there had been some hidden organization or something going on. It could have been worse, he supposed, it would have sucked if he was in a world that had that Darkseid guy hanging around.  
  
There was a Black Adam in this version too; there was a vague memory of him fighting alongside some other villains? That guy was probably one of the higher tiers of physical capes here, and one he should strive to become stronger than.  
  
That should place him at a level that he would be able to hopefully safely exist here without getting one-shotted by some random comic-book plotline. Then again, the guy had been able to go toe-to-toe with Superman in several continuities; he should probably just aim to surpass the Kryptonian instead.  
  
He was pretty sure if he tried anything against either of them at present, he would be getting his ass clapped.  
  


* * *

  
Apartment Philadelphia, 3:30 PM.  
July 8th, 2010.  
  
“What’s up, blue?” Aiden said distractedly.  
  
“Bubbles, I have a job for you.” The Blue Snowman said urgently.  
  
The tone of voice drew his full attention to the phone, and he turned the collar off with a hum.  
  
“Details?” Aiden said evenly.  
  
If it was another robbery, he was just going to hang up.  
  
“There has been a string of assassinations in the last few days, all targeting CEO’s of companies that have ties with Cadmus Labs.” The Blue Snowman said quickly.  
  
Aiden raised an eyebrow, interested; the place had been set on fire a few days prior. Then the entire Justice league had shown up, which was pretty bizarre without context; there had been some weird speculation about them taking turns putting out the fire.  
  
With context, they had shown up because Cadmus Labs had made a clone of Superman, which the younger squad had found and recruited.  
  
Pretty early stuff for Young Justice, so he still had a little bit of an idea of what was going on. That shadow organization that he couldn’t remember the name of was making sure it couldn’t be traced back to them by cutting all ties.  
  
“I know one of the few who is still alive; no attempt has been made yet, but it could happen at any moment,” Blue said, still speaking quickly. “She is the CEO of Farano Enterprises, Selena Gonzalez, based in Central City.  
  
“You sound pretty worried,” Aiden said idly. “A friend of yours?”  
  
He was already getting his things together, somewhat gleefully, finally a job; making friends with the villain was paying off in the end.  
  
“Yes,” Snowman admitted after a moment, “I am very worried.”  
  
“How long does she need protection and what hours?” Aiden finally steered them towards the main issue. “Have you spoken to her already?”  
  
“I have. The job is twenty-four-seven protection.” The Blue Snowman said quickly, “For a week, but it will likely be extended to a month at most.”  
  
Aiden had already worked out his pricing for legitimate work, but he’d decided to cut under the market for now; so twenty-four/seven protection for an executive was $100 an hour, as well as expenses; for a normal bodyguard, he could easily charge twice that for a superhuman bodyguard.  
  
He would need to build up a reputation first, but then he would raise his prices.  
  
“Price is $120 an hour, with expenses,” Aiden said evenly. “That’s twenty thousand for a week.”  
  
“What?!” The Blue Snowman said offended, “You charged me a thousand dollars for an hour!”  
  
He had massively overcharged the villain because of the illegal nature of the job, and the fact that he was guaranteed to be fighting a hero of undetermined strength immediately.  
  
“You’re a villain, and you were doing something illegal, which makes me look bad,” Aiden said dryly, “Besides, the job was to save you from a hero of undetermined strength.”  
  
“Whatever,” The Blue Snowman huffed, “She can afford that, will you take the job?”  
  
Well, he certainly wasn’t going to say no to what should be an easy twenty-thousand.  
  
“Yes,” Aiden said simply, “I’ll need the payment upfront, and I’ll be en route to her location as soon as I get it; I’ll send you the account. Understand?”  
  
“Yes,” The digitized voice said worriedly, “I know I'm supposed to be a bad guy, but please protect her.”  
  
Was this the guy's mother? Or an older sibling? Or just a friend they knew outside of villainy? Aiden was curious, but he wasn’t going to let it derail him.  
  
“No promises until I get the payment.” Aiden said smoothly, “Later, kid.”  
  
“Kid?!” The Blue Snowman said, outraged. “I’m not a-”  
  


* * *

  
Philadelphia Outskirts, 3:42 PM.  
July 8th, 2010.  
  
Flying never got old, the rush of wind pressing against him, the exhilaration of just slicing through the air at high speeds; it was incredible. Aiden grinned from behind his mask, as his black business suit was flapping around.  
  
Central City was in Missouri, a five-hour flight away by passenger plane, and he had no real measure of how stacked up against a plane only that he was pretty sure he was beyond it by a fair amount. This was going to be the first test in that regard; he should be able to figure out how fast he was after he arrived.  
  
Either way, within seconds, Philadelphia was left far behind him.  
  
At some point, he started laughing; this was so much better than floating around his apartment. The escape across the city had been an amazing rush, even if it had been a brief one. The landscape was changing below him at an obscene pace.  
  
He felt like he could do this forever.  
  
This was one of the things that Tracy should have tried to turn the collar into; a personal flying device. All she would have needed to do was add some propulsion for steering, and every thrill-seeker halfway across the world would have jumped at the chance at what could have been a wing-suit but with the ability to go back up into the air.  
  
He remembered that back in his own world, there had been a guy who had attempted to make the ‘Iron Man’ suit, managing just to fly around several meters above the ground with some success.  
  
Millionaires had been willing to pay to test drive the thing; he was going to have to see if he could hire her.  
  


* * *

  
Central City, Gonzalez Residence, 4:18 PM.  
July 8th, 2010.  
  
Aiden touched down in the courtyard of a large house with an outer perimeter wall. There seemed to be more glass than actual walls on the thing; the owner clearly wanted to show off. He closed the map app he was using to find the address and stashed his phone in his pocket.  
  
Depending on how the assassins were dealing with their targets, this could either be easy or very difficult.  
  
If they were any type of long-ranged rifle involved, all these glass walls were going to be a serious issue. If they were more the melee type of killers, it might actually make it much easier to see anyone's approach. There were some rooms that were properly walled off, so she would have somewhere to sleep without fear of being shot.  
  
The small Ki presence stood behind the door, unmoving, likely watching him. That would be Selena, no doubt.  
  
“Selena Gonzalez,” Aiden turned towards the door and spoke calmly, “We will need to discuss the type of opposition we are likely to encounter during this task if I am to properly keep you safe from harm.”  
  
The door opened a moment later, revealing a woman in a blue and white pants suit. Selena Gonzalez was a Hispanic woman, with brown eyes and black shoulder-length hair; she was quite striking, even with her eyes narrowed in suspicion.  
  
“You would be ‘Bubbles?’” Selena said intently, still hiding mostly behind the door.  
  
“I am indeed Bubbles,” Aiden said simply, grinning at the name behind his mask.  
  
“The name doesn’t fit at all,” Selena said pointedly, testing the waters. “You look more like an assassin than anything.”  
  
“I take a lot of baths,” Aiden said dryly.  
  
“You don’t look very strong either,” Selena needled.  
  
Obviously, she was trying to get a hostile reaction out of him, so she could base her future interactions off of it before she let him in her house; it wasn’t exactly a bad idea.  
  
“People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones, Selena,” Aiden said, amused, “I’m more than strong enough to handle any assassins that come after you, but if we stay outside any longer, an aspiring killer might just shoot one of us.”  
  
Aiden stepped towards the door calmly, and Selena hesitated for a moment longer before she stepped backward, letting him through. He strolled inside, looking around at the beautiful interior, absolutely jealous of the woman's awesome house.  
  
First thing first.  
  
“Do you know who asked me to take on this job?” Aiden said easily, still looking around.  
  
“Yes,” Selena said, frowning, “It was a friend of mine. How did they know how to get in contact with you?”  
  
Not a very good response; it didn’t confirm anything about who the Blue Snowman was, other than they knew each other. ‘Friend’ was a broad category, but it wouldn’t make sense for a CEO to be friends with some random kid in another city.  
  
“We’ve had some dealings in the past,” Aiden said vaguely, “I provided some assistance. Now, let us move to a room where we cannot be seen through the ridiculous amount of windows you have.”  
  
“I’m starting to regret all the glass,” Selena admitted. “In my defense, I didn’t think I was going to be targeted.”  
  
They climbed the stairs to the second floor and entered one of the walled rooms, an office, right in the middle of the building.  
  
“Who is targeting you?” Aiden prompted. “and in the event, it comes to pass, who should I prepare myself to protect you against?”  
  
“I don’t know who they will send after me, but it’s the League of Shadows,” Selena said quietly.  
  
He blinked, that’s right, there was that Ninja-girl, uh Artemis's older sister? And evil Spiderman? They had been after someone else though, the nano-machine lady, he’d forgotten about all of that.  
  
“Why are they after you?” Aiden prompted, still following his own chain of thought.  
  
“We’ve done business with Cadmus Labs in the past, and they have ties to the company somehow,” Selena said cagily, “That’s my best guess on why; I knew two of the others who have already been killed, they had similar reasons.”  
  
Either supplying them under the table with equipment, manpower, information or something else, either way, it didn’t matter to him.  
  
“Alright, duties, and expectations.” Aiden said firmly, “I will be sticking close to you at all times until the contract is finished; that’s means I’ll be guarding you while you sleep, just so we are clear.”  
  
“That’s fine,” Selena said evenly, “I wouldn’t want to be killed in my sleep.”  
  
Aiden just nodded.  
  
“While you are here, I suggest you stick to the walled rooms as much as possible,” He continued, “If you need to leave the premises for any reason, I will, of course, accompany you; I suggest you do not attempt to slip away from me for any reason.”  
  
“I wouldn’t have tried,” Selena said curiously, “Why would I try to do that?”  
  
“The killers might try to isolate you, lure you away with some kind of random occurrence, or a moment of impulse.” Aiden explained, “They could try to take a hostage of some kind, and threaten you into attempting to slip away.”  
  
“I see,” Selena said in understanding, “I hadn’t thought they might try a more subtle approach than simply cornering me and pulling the trigger.”  
  
“So if something out of the ordinary happens, a mistake at work that requires you to come in to fix, or something of the like, assume first it is a ploy until you can confirm otherwise.” Aiden elaborated, “Apart from that, go about your daily life as you wish; I will attempt to remain as unobtrusive as possible, but if you wish for company, feel free to speak with me.”  
  
“I’ll do that,” Selena said, pleased, “In that case, I’ll be doing some work from here, I’m in your care.”  
  
Aiden nodded and moved to sit on the bench by the wall.  
  


* * *

  
Central City, Gonzalez Residence, 11:18 PM.  
July 8th, 2010.  
  
Aiden floated an inch above the carpet, back to the wall, and listening to the light breathing of his client, only feet away, sleeping in her massive bed. The collar hummed minutely as it tried it’s best to pull him down to the floor.  
  
He had his eyes closed, but he was tracking everything within several blocks with his Ki Sense.  
  
There were lots of people sleeping in beds, two homeless people in what was probably the park he had seen early, several people were still moving around there houses, there hadn’t been a single to approach the outer wall of Selena’s home.  
  
He had a wireless headphone in his left ear, and his phone alarm was set to wake him up every hour so that he could get some sleep. He’d already drifted off once, but he would spend most of the time training quietly.  
  
He’d been thinking about who would be sent to kill his client.  
  
It was most likely going to be Artemis’s sister, and from what he remembered, she was a hand-to-hand specialist, with a bunch of ninja tools at her disposal. He was pretty certain that nothing she could do would hurt him, except if she had some kind of poison or something. He would probably be able to blitz her as well, but he wasn’t here to fight the assassins. His only goal was to protect Selena.  
  
Selena let out a loud snore; It was going to be a long night.


	11. Chapter 11

Central City, Farano Enterprises, 7:34 PM.  
July 9th, 2010.  
  
“This still seems like a pretty bad idea,” Aiden said honestly.  
  
Selena snorted.  
  
“You said to watch out for ploys that would end up with me doing something out of the ordinary; I left my USB at work in my rush to get home; it isn’t a ploy, nobody knows about it except me,” Selena explained, bemusedly. “I just need to sync it up, and then we can leave.”  
  
Aiden just shook his head.  
  
“I know it’s not a scheme,” Aiden rolled his eyes behind his mask, “You’ve already explained as much; the problem is people will be looking for you here.”  
  
“Luckily, I have my new bodyguard to protect me,” Selena said smugly. “This is my office.”  
  
Aiden gave up again; he was at least a thousand percent sure they were going to get attacked at this point. It was indeed her office, judging by the nameplate on the door.  
  
“Wait here for a minute,” Aiden said seriously, before stepping in front of her.  
  
He spent a moment scanning the area with his Ki sense, but there was nobody around, he opened the door, keeping himself between it and Selena, but there was no explosion or anything. He stepped inside and investigated for a moment before giving her the all-clear.  
  
“Looks clear to me, stay within a couple of meters of me regardless, in case I need to protect you,” Aiden said evenly.  
  
“Thanks,” Selena strode into the room and sat down at her desk.  
  
Aiden watched as she rifled around with her drawers for a moment before finding what she was looking for. Then she plugged it into the computer, and he stared at her dryly as a long loading bar popped up on the screen.  
  
“It hasn’t been synced in like three days,” Selena said defensively. “It will only take a couple of minutes.”  
  
If this were a movie, this would be the exact time-  
  
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Aiden said in disbelief, stepping up to stand directly behind her. “Don’t move; there are three people rapidly moving towards the building.”  
  
Selena looked gobsmacked.  
  
“It wasn’t a ploy!” Selena said defensively.  
  
“I know; they must have seen us arrive somehow,” Aiden said seriously. “It doesn’t matter, how long until it’s done?”  
  
“Two minutes,” Selena said worriedly.  
  
Aiden was close enough to her that he could lay his hand on her shoulder in an instant, so he wasn’t worried about that. He was trying to figure out who the three villains would be; there was a really small one, which might have been the ninja chick?  
  
“They're in the vents now; one of them at least.” Aiden frowned; they were sneaky little assassins. “The others are moving directly here via the stairs; we will probably have to leave the USB unless you want to wait for them to arrive.”  
  
“It’s almost done.” Selena said bravely, “You can stop them for a minute?”  
  
“If they come in here, I will,” Aiden said easily, “I’m not going to leave you on your own; I’ve seen far too many horror movies to make that mistake, Selena.”  
  
She snorted quietly.  
  
“Stay in the chair,” Aiden said seriously, placing his finger against her back. “They’re here.”  
  
Aiden focused, and everything seemed to slow down around him; Two of them were outside of the door, crouched at the frame, the third was inside the vent in the corner of the room. He could hear their breathing before he heard a male voice speak.  
  
“They are already here; we're out of time.” The largest one crouched outside the door murmured. “KF, take him down.”  
  
The door slammed open at the same time as the vent in the corner of the room fell inwards, and Aiden watched it all as if in slow motion, his Ki ready to envelop them both.  
  
He paused; these obviously weren’t the assassins.  
  
Kid Flash blurred into the room, and he snapped his head around as the kid circled the desk in an instant, coming straight for him. He braced himself as the blurring kid smashed into him, attempting to tackle him away from Selena.  
  
The floor cracked as he held his ground, and Kid Flash let out a grunt of pain, hands still wrapped around his torso as he tried to lift him off his feet.  
  
Aiden grabbed him by the shoulder and lifted him off the floor before tossing him straight at where his teammate was barreling towards the desk; Aqualad caught him, sending them skidding back several feet from the force. Robin swung into the room from the vent, taking in the scene for a moment.  
  
Aiden made no move to follow them, keeping his vigil behind Selena with his hand resting on her shoulder.  
  
“You’re not an assassin,” Robin said belatedly.  
  
“He’s my bodyguard,” Selena said hesitantly, “Aren’t you Batman's sidekick, Robin? What are you doing here?”  
  
“We have intel that suggests that you would be attacked,” Aqualad said calmly as he stood back up. “We came to monitor the situation and intervene; we were unaware that you had employed a bodyguard and mistook him for an assassin about to kill you.”  
  
It was pretty much what Aiden had assumed once he had spotted Kid Flash coming through the door.  
  
“A metahuman bodyguard,” Kid Flash added groaned, standing upright. “That was like trying to tackle a brick wall.”  
  
“Who are you?” Aqualad interjected.  
  
“Bubbles, a superpowered bodyguard for hire; tell your friends,” Aiden said, amused.  
  
“What kind of name is Bubbles?” Robin said, bewildered.  
  
“I don’t want to hear that from the kid named after a bird,” Aiden returned, “Mind sharing who you think was after her? Our best guess was the League of Shadows.”  
  
“You are most likely correct; we believe the League of Shadows is involved in this.” Aqualad said steadily, “Ms. Gonzalez, are you aware of why they are after you?”  
  
Selena spent a moment thinking over her answer before sighing.  
  
“I’ve had dealings with Cadmus Labs in the past,” Selena said simply. “The League of Shadow has some kind of connection to Cadmus; I don’t know what it is. I assume they were hired to remove anyone who might know anything that could get them into more legal trouble after everything that happened recently.”  
  
Another three presences appeared at the edge of his range, moving swiftly towards the building. Most likely, the rest of their team, which would mean that it was Superboy, Ms. Martian, and- The last one could be either Artemis or Power Girl; he wasn’t sure if the first had joined the team yet, which meant that one of them was missing.  
  
The problem was that two of them were much larger than what he would peg either of those girls as. The signatures almost felt like grown men.  
  
“Aqualad,” Aiden interrupted, “Did you come here alone?”  
  
Aqualad eyed him for a moment, silently.  
  
“Is this where you turn out to be the assassin after all and try to kill us all?” Robin said curiously.  
  
The tension in the room ratcheted up at the flippant comment.  
  
“There are three people who just entered the building,” Aiden clarified, “Are they your teammates?”  
  
Aqualad stilled, before shaking his head.  
  
“No, we came alone,” Aqualad said firmly, “Robin, KF, three hostiles incoming, get ready. How far away are they?”  
  
“They are two floors below us,” Aiden didn’t move from his place behind Selena. “One floor now.”  
  
Robin ducked out of the room and vanished, moving down the hallway and then somehow getting up into a corner of a room and staying there out of sight. Kid Flash stepped out into the hall and stood before the doorway, pulling his goggles down over his face in preparation.  
  
“Can we count on your assistance?” Aqualad asked seriously.  
  
“I’ll be protecting Selena,” Aiden said simply. “I won’t be fighting.”  
  
Strangely enough, he felt a little upset at the idea of missing out on fighting, but he stamped down on the feeling. He was here for business; he wasn’t going to do something stupid like leave his client alone.  
  
“Very well,” Aqualad said evenly.  
  
“Incoming!” Kid Flash called, and Aqualad stepped out into the hall.  
  
The sound of shattering glass followed from down the hall, and the sound of something heavy and metal smashing into wood.  
  
“How long?” Aiden said idly. “I can get you out now.”  
  
Selena had been completely quiet, no doubt scared that there were actually people coming to kill her after all, but she managed to get herself together enough to answer a moment later.  
  
“Let’s wait,” Selena said hurriedly. “There's only twenty seconds left.”  
  
Robin had joined in on the fighting, attacking the three from behind the second they had passed him by; the sneaky little guy. Kid Flash was dashing around the room, and Aqualad was in close range to one of the three.  
  
The problem was that the three signatures of the assassins were now in between the heroes and the room, and one of them had broken off towards the room.  
  
“Incoming,” Aiden murmured, “Three, two, one-”  
  
“It's finished!” Selena called and snatched the USB from the computer.  
  
The door opened, and three small metal objects crossed the distance with unerring accuracy, straight towards Selena’s face. Aiden instantly brought the Ki Sheild forth; he had been preparing to use for almost five minutes now, and it flashed into existence around them both.  
  
The spinning metal objects tinked off the shield and fell to the floor as a short woman with a green costume, white mask and a massive amount of black hair slipped into the room.  
  
“Shuriken?” Aiden scoffed, “Do you think you’re a ninja or something?”  
  
Aiden scooped Selena up into a bridal carry, and the ninja lunged forward before stabbing her weapon into the shield. The attack landed with an audible crack as the tip of her blade snapped off, and he slowly lifted off the floor.  
  
“Lame,” Aiden said, amused, heading for the window. “Samurai are much cooler.”  
  
“Running away?” The ninja taunted coyly, “From little old me?”  
  
“I’m worried that your cringe might be contagious; I’m not taking any chances,” Aiden called over his shoulder and flew straight through the window frame.  
  
“Whoa!” Selena yelped.  
  
The wall shattered outwards as the shield came into contact with it, completely unyielding, and then they were outside, four stories off the ground and flying away from the building. He could feel the two assassin’s break off from inside the hallway, leaving the fight entirely.  
  
The ninja girl swung outside of the building somehow and gave chase, coming after them.  
  
“Huh,” Aiden said, surprised, “The ninja girl is coming after us; we have a couple of options here; would you like to hear them, or should I just take us to another city?”  
  
“Um,” Selena said, startled, “I always like to hear my options.”  
  
Aiden simply nodded.  
  
“Option number one, we can string out the chase for a little while, try and tire her out; then I can capture her.” Aiden offered, “The downside is that she might not get tired, I don’t know if shes got powers, and she might try to escape whatever I use to tie her up because, well, she's a ninja.”  
  
The ninja was still following them, and Aiden was deliberately staying in visual distance until Selena had made her choice. That strange urge to go back and fight the ninja was sitting at the back of his mind, itching.  
  
“Option number two, I just pour on the speed and get us across the city.” Aiden said easily, “The downside to that they might not stop trying to find us tonight, and we would have to move again when they found us.”  
  
“Option number three would be to just go to another city?” Selena guessed correctly, “Hm. Could you beat them in a fight?”  
  
That feeling was growing by the second.  
  
“Easily,” Aiden forced the feeling down, “But if I’m fighting them, there's a chance something could go wrong and endanger you, so I would _suggest_ that we just evacuate..”  
  
Saying the words was a lot harder than he anticipated. He was starting to feel distinctly off, and he didn’t like the feeling. He’d never been one to be overcome with an impulse like this before, not that he had noticed anyway; it was exceedingly jarring.  
  
“Let's evacuate then,” Selena said firmly.  
  
“Do you have any friends in other cities?” Aiden asked, already speeding up.  
  
“How fast can you get us to Philadelphia?” Selena said curiously.  
  
Aiden blinked; why did she pick there? Was this some kind of attempt to tell him that she knew who he was?  
  
“Less than an hour, why?” Aiden said calmly.  
  
“I have a friend that we can stay with there for a little while,” Selena explained, “She has a pretty good computer as well, so I can keep on working from there.”  
  
Alright, maybe he was being a little paranoid.  
  
“Philadelphia is it,” Aiden said easily, “Hold on tight.”  
  
Selena leaned in and wrapped her arms around his neck, and he made sure the shield was still holding strong before zipping off to the east.  
  


* * *

  
Philadelphia, West Ritner Street, 8:27 PM.  
July 9th, 2010.  
  
“Well, that’s West Ritner,” Aiden said, shrugging. “You can’t remember the number?”  
  
“I haven’t been to her place since I was like six,” Selena said dryly, “I’ll send her a message.”  
  
Aiden just nodded; two decades was a long time, but he could still remember the exact street and number his best friend had lived at back then.  
  
“Does she own the place?” Aiden asked idly.  
  
“No, her parents were renting it, some deal with the owner.” Selena said distractedly, “I spoke to her, uh, a month ago? She was still living there then, she was having some difficulty with the new owners though, thought she might have to move soon.”  
  
Aiden listened to the string of random information he really didn’t care about. Selena’s phone dinged as she received a return message, and she looked around for a moment before spotting whatever she was looking for.  
  
“It's like another block that way,” Selena pointed and started walking.  
  
Aiden fell in step beside her, staying close.  
  
“Any chance she is secretly one of the ninjas?” Aiden asked seriously. “What does she do for work? “  
  
“There's absolutely no way,” Selena laughed, “She’s a school teacher, I can’t think of anyone less likely to be a ninja in secret.”  
  
“Which is exactly the kind of person who would secretly be a ninja,” Aiden commented dryly, “I’ll take your word for it, though.”  
  
They stopped in front of a small single-story building, and Aiden followed her up to the door. Selena knocked on the door, and Aiden kept his hand on her shoulder in case the building exploded or something, but nothing happened for a moment. He could hear footsteps stumbling for a moment before they approached the door and opened it.  
  
A woman with shoulder-length brown fuzzy hair, blue eyes, and a shapely figure appeared, blinking at them.  
  
“Selena, what are you doing here?” The woman said hesitantly, “I got your message, but I thought you’d still be in Central City.”  
  
“Byrna,” Selena said awkwardly, “Can we come in? I don’t want to get shot standing around outside.”  
  
Byrna’s eyes went wide at the comment and opened the door to let them both in. Aiden narrowed his eyes at the woman; her voice was too familiar, her name was a strange one as well.  
  
“What’s your last name?” Aiden said calmly, staring at the woman.  
  
He shut the door behind him, and she bit her lip for a moment before speaking.  
  
“I’m Byrna Brilyant, nice to meet you?” Byrna said nervously. “Who are you exactly?”  
  
That was a supervillain name if he’d ever heard one, and that was definitely the high-pitched voice he’d heard on the phone when he had called The Blue Snowman, the one without the digitizer.  
  
Aiden stared at her for several moments, and the woman laughed nervously.  
  
“ _Chill_ out, Byrna,” Aiden said wryly, “I will remain as unobtrusive as I can whilst here; please go about your life as if I’m not here.”  
  
“O-oh, okay.” Byrna squeaked before turning around and striding into the kitchen.  
  
Selena followed her a moment later, confused.  
  
Aiden calmly followed them, trying to put it all together. Selena clearly didn’t know that Byrna was the Blue Snowman because that reference had gone straight over the sharp woman's head. So they weren’t hiding in a secret ninja’s house, they were hiding out in a secret supervillains house.  
  
Surprisingly enough, it would be safer here.  
  
Blue was the one who had contacted him about protecting her, to begin with, and she obviously hadn’t expected to have to host them only a day later. So he had discovered her identity by accident, this would give him some leverage when it came to any further deals.  
  
Judging by the powered Snowman armor, she obviously knew something about engineering and the design and repair of advanced technology. He could probably get her to make him a proper mask, so he could get rid of this damn balaclava and ceramic oval.  
  
He was entirely sick of his face itching.


	12. Chapter 12

Philadelphia, West Ritner Street, 8:32 PM.  
July 9th, 2010.  
  
“You’re the one who told me about this in the first place?” Selena rolled her eyes, “Why are you pretending you don’t know anything?”  
  
Byrna flinched at the statement, and Aiden started at her amused.  
  
“Well, I didn’t want a strange man knowing that I was in contact with…” Byrna flushed and fell silent.  
  
Aiden raised an eyebrow behind his mask, curious what cover story she had come up with to explain away her knowledge of the assassins to her friend.  
  
“The Batman?” Selena finished curiously. “Why are you acting so weird?”  
  
“You’re in contact with, _The Batman,_ ” Aiden said dryly, “And he told _you,_ a school teacher, about the league of assassins.”  
  
Byrna was growing increasingly red-faced.  
  
“It’s true!” Byrna cried embarrassedly before cringing. “He-he visits me sometime?”  
  
Aiden started laughing, unable to help himself. How Selena was buying anything from this woman was a god damned mystery, she had to be the worst liar he had ever met in his entire life.  
  
“Look, Byrna,” Selena sighed, rolling her eyes, “I don’t care about your Batman booty calls; can we stay here for a few days or not?”  
  
Aiden had to turn around and lean against the wall, as Byrna looked like she was undergoing a complete meltdown at the moment. This is why you stick to half-truths or vague wording rather than an outright lie.  
  
“Stop laughing!” Byrna groaned, holding her face. “You can stay here, just don’t go snooping around.”  
  
Now, why would she say that? Did she have a secret lair here or something? A hidden room filled with her power suit?  
  
“I need to use your computer, though,” Selena pleaded, “I have so much work to catch up on, _Byrna_.”  
  
“Fine,” Byrna huffed. “Don’t do anything weird that might get me in trouble.”  
  
“Thanks!” Selena said, pleased.  
  
Byrna quickly dragged Selena into the office room, presumably to set her up on the computer there, and Aiden leaned against the kitchen wall again, waiting. He followed the quiet conversation the two were having in the other room, and it further solidified that Selena had no idea that her friend was, in fact, a villain.  
  
“Shut the door!” Selena called when Byrna stepped out of the office again.  
  
Byrna pouted at being ordered around in her own home but did as requested before stopping at the end of the hallway, watching him nervously.  
  
“Um.” Byrna mumbled, “How long have you known Selena?”  
  
“Are we really going to pretend that you’re not The Blue Snowman?” Aiden said wryly.  
  
“Why did she have to bring you _here_?” Byrna whined, “She's rich! She could have rented a building or something.”  
  
“That you were the first person she thought of when she needed help.” Aiden said idly, “That means you must be a pretty good friend, huh?”  
  
“I’ve known her since I was a kid,” Byrna admitted, “We used to play together when she lived here.”  
  
“Why not tell her?” Aiden asked curiously.  
  
“I can’t tell her that!” Byrna said hissed, horrified. “You can’t tell her either.”  
  
Byrna stared at him, nervously when he didn’t say anything in response.  
  
“ _Bubbles_?” Byrna whined. “Don’t tell her.”  
  
“I wasn’t planning on it,” Aiden said simply, studying her.  
  
“Oh,” Byrna said sheepishly.  
  
“Hey, Byrna; why are you a villain?” Aiden asked curiously.  
  
How strange that a school-teacher would become a supervillain, what set of circumstances created her? What benefit did she get out of it? Did she enjoy teaching so much that she kept her job? She was robbing places for cash all over the city; she clearly needed money that being a teacher didn’t provide.  
  
Byrna Brilyant was smart enough to operate, maintain, and develop an _armored power suit_ ; she was absolutely wasted as a school-teacher.  
  
“Shush,” Byrna nervously glanced up the hallway for a moment, as if Selena might be listening. “I needed money.”  
  
“Why not get a job as an engineer? Or sell some of your technology?” Aiden asked curiously. “Why continue to be a school teacher if you are not earning enough money from it? Do you enjoy teaching that much?”  
  
Byrna laughed suddenly.  
  
“I hate teaching those little monsters,” Byrna giggled, before recovering after a moment. “Well, maybe not _hate,_ but it only took about a year before I regretted that decision.”  
  
“Then why continue?” Aiden pressed.  
  
He needed a weak point to work with if he would be attempting to recruit her; it was likely some kind of personal reason or an attempt at a cover story. Byrna chewed on her bottom lip for a long moment before coming to some kind of decision.  
  
“My father was a college chemistry professor,” Byrna said, smiling, “When I was little, I always wanted to be just like him, so I promised him I would become a teacher when I grew up.”  
  
“Simple as that, huh?” Aiden said thoughtfully. “What does he think about your night job?”  
  
“He never found out,” Byrna snickered, before smiling sadly. “He created the basis for all the cryotechnology I use.”  
  
Aiden could read the atmosphere enough to tell that her old man was no longer around. Interesting, so her father had been the catalyst. That didn’t explain the power suit, though; that was an entirely different subset of technology than freezing things.  
  
“Did he make your suit? Or was that all you?” Aiden said calmly.  
  
Byrna shook her head to refocus herself and met his eyes through the mask again.  
  
“The suit was all me, he was never that good with engineering.” Byrna admitted, “He was a genius, smarter than me for sure; never very good with his hands though, that’s how he…anyway.”  
  
“What’s your area of specialty then?” Aiden said evenly. “Engineering?”  
  
“Robotics, Engineering, Computer systems,” Byrna said quietly, glancing up the hallway again.  
  
“Cyro technology as well, obviously.” Aiden prompted.  
  
“Yep,” Byrna said sheepishly.  
  
“Byrna!” Selena called, distracting them both from further conversation.  
  
Aiden decided to wait for his recruitment pitch, now wasn’t the optimal time.  
  
“What?” Byrna projected her voice down the hallway.  
  
“Make me a coffee!” Selena demanded.  
  
“You know where the kitchen is!” Byrna cried, “Make it yourself!”  
  
“I’m working!” Selena whined, “ _Byrna!_ ”  
  
“Oh, for the love of-” Byrna huffed, “Fine!”  
  
The two women argued for a bit longer, but all he could think was that it was going to be a long few days.  
  


* * *

  
Central City, Selena’s Home, 8:32 AM.  
July 14th, 2010.  
  
The amount of Ki-signatures standing around outside the wall had been steadily increasing as the morning progressed.  
  
Selena’s almost assassination had apparently been reported to both the police and the Justice League by Robin, Aqualad, and Kid Flash. In turn, they had stationed a police presence around her home. He had even spotted a red blur that was probably The Flash, through the window, occasionally patrolling the area for any suspicious people idling about.  
  
The police had contacted Selena the second night they had stayed with Byrna, but they had decided to remain then for three days before returning. Selena had managed to catch up on her lapsed work, Aiden had managed to find the hidden basement containing all of The Blue Snowman’s equipment.  
  
Byrna had spent most of the week at her teaching job, which had given him plenty of time to snoop around unobstructed. He had no idea what half of the machines where that she had down there, but some of it was clearly used to maintain her power suit, given that the Blue Snowman’s arm was partially disassembled on one of the desks.  
  
The contract that they had agreed on had been extended for the full month, despite the extra presence of the authorities. He wasn’t complaining, more money in the bank to play with; that was never a bad thing in his eyes.  
  
Selena was still working in the sealed-off office room, which is where she had spent most of her time while awake. The woman was a worse workaholic than he was, which was saying something, and Aiden was getting bored as a result.  
  
Okay, so maybe he was complaining a little.  
  
Training had continued, although it was mostly just gravity training, meditating, exploring his surroundings with his Ki sense, and some necessary experimenting with Ki. He had figured out how to bulk his muscles up by filling them with KI, although he was still struggling to move the effect evenly across his body in any substantial way. He had also started trying to repeat his earlier feat of duplicating his KI-splitting it into two parts; in the hopes of chasing down the multi-form technique.  
  
No luck on that part yet, but he was getting better at controlling his Ki with every moment.  
  
A flicker in his Ki sense appeared; it moved from one side of the block to the other, looped around the wall three times, and then vanished again in the same direction. The Flash performing his hourly patrol; the guy was obscenely fast.  
  
He could follow him reasonably well with his Ki-sense, but visually the guy was Fast enough that he could only see a red streak without details. Kid Flash had been hard to follow back in Selena’s office, but he was able to react in time.  
  
He was pretty sure at the moment that Flash would kick his ass with ease, and it probably wasn’t even close to his top speed.  
  
“There's only one way to go,” Aiden said quietly, “I’m getting better every day, and eventually, you’ll all be saying the same thing about me.”  
  
  


* * *

  
Central City, Selena’s Home, 4:07 PM.  
July 16th, 2010.  
  
“You agreed to attend _all_ appointments-” Dinah stopped herself before taking a deep breath. “At least tell me where you are.”  
  
“Oh come _on,”_ Aiden groaned, “I told you I’m working, you know that thing people do to make money? I didn’t agree to tell you my every action, okay? I agreed to a weekly checkup to make sure I wasn’t going to release your stupid identities-which! I’ll remind you I told you under the bondage of truth, I still haven’t told anyone; I’m willing to meet Diana again in a couple of weeks if you don’t believe me, and I still have _no intention_ of telling anyone!”  
  
“You agreed to weekly checkups- _which you missed-_ ” Dinah returned fire, but she sounded a lot calmer than before. “When exactly will you be returning to Philadelphia?”  
  
“Why do you think I’m _not_ working in Philadelphia?” Aiden said immediately, “Are you stalking me now? That’s illegal, you know, and not something a therapist should be doing.”  
  
“A simple guess,” Dinah said offhandedly.  
  
Aiden rolled his eyes; they were clearly tracking him or had decided that he was ‘Bubbles’ without any actual proof. Lucky for him, he had been given a massive reputational boost by all the reporters that had interviewed Selena on her return. He was now known far and wide as a legitimate, super-powered bodyguard, one who worked for outstanding members of society like the CEO of Farano Enterprises, Selena Gonzalez.  
  
Better than that, he was known as an _effective_ bodyguard, one who had fought of _three_ Assassins; or at least that was the story that Selena has sold to the reporters, not a mention of the younger heroes being present. Then again, the three heroes had essentially done a break and enter into her office building; they probably didn’t want that getting out any time soon.  
  
“Well, it’s a bad one, I’m still in Philadelphia,” Aiden said briskly.  
  
“Your appointment at Star Labs is in four days; if you are still there, I’m sure you will be able to attend it on time,” Dinah said immediately.  
  
“Nope,” Aiden denied quickly, “I’m busy working. I won’t be able to get any time off, even for an appointment; I’ll be there for the August one, though. Consider this advanced notice.”  
  
That was the best way to deal with people who were trying to trap you with words, just be completely upfront with what you intend to do, be confident, unapologetic, and in most cases, it was a hard position to assault. At least if they weren’t able to dip into blackmail, a strategy which would sour this relationship entirely and would likely remain a non-issue.  
  
He could almost hear her sigh at his complete refusal to step into the minefield she was trying to set for him.  
  


* * *

  
Central City, Selena’s Home, 11:32 AM.  
July 18th, 2010.  
  
Selena was working again, so he had been listening to the massive tv she had in the living room while working out.  
  
“This is Live footage of an ongoing attack on Happy Harbour!” A man said fearfully, as the camera shook. “A red-robot? It looks like Red Tornado, but larger; is laying waste to the surrounding areas!”  
  
He’d never met Red Tornado, but he could remember what he looked like from his research, and this new guy definitely looked like him, at least superficially. Although the wind attacks weren’t red at all, which was a signature ability of the hero.  
  
“We’ve seen several heroes engaging with the villain already. We’ve identified; Kid Flash, Robin, Aqualad, and two new heroes! Superboy and Red Tornado-” The man continued, both the cameraman and himself had to duck as a truck crashed through the corner of the roof of the building opposite them. “There's the missing Power Girl now!”  
  
Indeed the blonde Kryptonian appeared in the air catching the truck before it could squash the reporter and placed it gently onto the ground before waving at them and then heading into the ongoing fight.  
  
“The battle is quickly becoming one-sided now!” The man continued excitedly, “Wait-Red Tornado just turned into Miss Martian! There go the villain's arms!”  
  
The camera work was pretty good considering all the smoke, fire, debris, and wind being tossed about. And he could clearly see when a man crawled out of the wreckage of the robot-well, power suit now he supposed.  
  
“Foul-I call foul.” The man said nervously, just audible. “Nobody said anything about a Kryptonian-”  
  
Miss Martian smashed a rock onto the guy’s head, killing him instantly. Aiden stared at the scene, shocked, what the hell was she doing?  
  
“What the hell is Miss Martian doing?!” The report said, horrified. “She just killed-oh! It was another robot! A robot piloting a robot! Ingenius!”  
  
He slumped back to the ground and shook his head; pretty damn lifelike for a ‘robot.’ It was possible it looked different closer up, but it was indistinguishable from a human on the camera feed. The fact that somebody could make something like that blew his mind; he wouldn’t even know where to begin.  
  
Whoever had designed them was more wasted potential; they could be making a free robotic labor force or a legion of programmable robot assistants to sell to other scientists; hell, there was probably a market for companion robots if they were that lifelike. That wasn’t even addressing the whole aerokinetic thing the larger mech had going on; the power source used to power all those wind attacks must have been pretty powerful.  
  
What a waste.  
  


* * *

  
Central City, Selena’s Home, 7:37 PM.  
July 25th, 2010.  
  
“There has been another disappearance,” Cat Grant said pleasantly, “Only hours ago, a Dr. Serling Roquette was taken from her home. It hasn’t been confirmed yet whether this is another attempt by the same criminals who attacked Farano Enterprises CEO, Selena Gonzalez; that was the woman who was attacked earlier this month-but I don’t think it would surprise any of us at this point.”  
  
“Serling Roquette,” Aiden mumbled, “Familiar name, one of the earlier episodes, something to do with nano-machines or something?”  
  
“We are waiting on a statement by the police, likely to occur tomorrow morning.” Cat said, nodding decisively, “I’ll keep all of you updated; this is Cat Grant, sighing off.”  
  
The heroes had managed to stop it without any outside help, from the vague memories he had of the situation.  
  
Less than two weeks remained on his contract, and then he would be returning to Philadelphia; before Dinah had a conniption. He made sure to make his last phone appointment on the 23rd, but nothing new had come up there; they had developed a pretty standard series of questions by this point.  
  
He’d actually made some decent progress on splitting his KI, although he was currently working his way up to larger and larger amounts. He assumed his end goal would logically be to completely split his entire Ki into two identical sections; it wasn’t an easy feat, and it was going to take a lot more effort before he was close to pulling that off.  
  
Roshi’s technique, which he had been trying to crib, had gone a lot better.  
  
He was at the point where he could fill most of his muscles with a minimal amount of KI, and damn if it wasn’t a weird feeling for his muscles to suddenly expand like that, even if it was just a small amount. It didn’t hurt either like he had expected, but there was a strain there, a constant effort to keep the effect going.  
  
There was some hope that it would grow easier the more familiar he became with using his KI in that way, much like it had with the Energy Shield, which he could now maintain for almost twenty minutes while in it’s expanded state before he started losing control.  
  
He couldn’t wait to get back outside and start working on his speed; seeing The Flash multiple times a day had helped grow envy in him at the man's sheer speed. He had some money to play with now, so he would call Tracey and see if he could get that gravity room started.  
  
Unlimited Funds, he had not, but surely the twenty thousand down payment he had received would be a good start. The red blur of The Flash passing by again was motivation enough to snatch his phone off the table.  
  
It rang several times before someone picked up.  
  
“Tracey,” Aiden said pleasantly. “How would you like to make ten thousand dollars?”


	13. Chapter 13

Central City, Selena’s Home, 8:07 AM.  
August 3rd, 2010.  
  
“And here I thought that the biggest news of the day was going to be the bridge incident that occurred with Superman and Superboy.” Cat Grant said urgently, “We’ve received reports of the Justice League appearing in force in Litchfield County; they are currently attempting to stop the rampage of an unknown man.”  
  
Aiden watched the footage roll past; a shirtless man with pointed ears and short-cropped red hair was somehow fighting what looked like the entire Justice League at once; the strangest part was that the guy wasn’t immediately being destroyed. He realized who it was a moment later when the guy somehow went intangible and immediately started shooting red beams of light out of his eyes.  
  
It was that Amazo robot dude; he’d forgotten what he had looked like.  
  
Wasn’t there supposed to be flying monkeys involved in this or something? There were none currently in the shaky-cam footage, but they might turn up at some point. He remembered the younger team of heroes fighting the guy as well; where were they at?  
  
“Ouch,” Aiden winced.  
  
Superman just got punted through the base of a building, shattering most of the walls on his way through before Martian Manhunter caught him. They both had to scatter as another burst of heat vision cut through where they had just been standing, destroying the building further. The fighting kicked up a cloud of debris and smoke that blocked the rest of the fight from view before the footage cut off.  
  
He was feeling excited just watching it; he couldn’t help but want to just fly straight over and join the battle. That same strange urge to fight was scratching at the back of his mind once more; was this how the Saiyans all felt? Was this why they seemingly took such strange actions, extending fights even when there was so much at stake? Allowing enemies to power up before fighting them? _Healing_ the enemies to make the fight last longer?  
  
The thought was terrifying; this strange urge might continue to grow to such an extent that he might struggle to control himself. Worse still, if the urge became so normalized, he didn’t even realize it influenced him anymore. Aiden forced himself to unclench his fists and tried to calm himself; he was still on the job for a few more days.  
  
No risky actions until after he was finished.  
  


* * *

  
Central City, Selena’s Home, 12:00 PM.  
August 7th, 2010.  
  
“Well, they’ve assured me at this point that I’m under constant watch for the foreseeable future,” Selena shrugged, “I’m just hoping that they are half as good at protecting me as you’ve been.”  
  
Aiden just nodded; both the Justice League and the Police had been in contact with her multiple times over the last week about a more permanent solution, so his first legal bodyguard mission was finally coming to an end.  
  
“Well, if you change your mind at any point, you have my work number,” Aiden said evenly, “I’m always down to come beat up some assassins if you need an assist-for the right price, of course.”  
  
Selena laughed.  
  
“Of course, a job well done needs compensation, after all, speaking of that, the full payment should have been transferred by now.” Selena smirked, “Bryna said that you were looking for clients when she met you the first time, so I’ll keep my ears open for anything to send your way; if you want, call it a bonus.”  
  
Aiden smiled behind his mask.  
  
“That sounds perfect, Selena,” Aiden said simply, “Stay safe, okay?”  
  
“I will,” Selena nodded, “Goodbye, Bubbles.”  
  


* * *

  
Star Labs, Philadelphia, 10:03 AM.  
August 8th, 2010.  
  
“Come in,” Emil said distractedly, “You missed our last appointment, you know?”  
  
“Why can’t I feel your Ki?” Aiden said, frowning, “It’s completely gone; what did you do?”  
  
Emil stilled for a long moment before turning to face him.  
  
“I presume that means my masking device is working correctly then,” Emil said, seemingly pleased with himself.  
  
What?  
  
“You made something to hide your Ki?” Aiden said incredulously, “I’m the only person who can even sense it, as far as I know anyway. Why bother?”  
  
It was weird being able to stare right at the man but not be able to feel him with what had become just another sense that ran quietly in the back of his mind. Emil set about setting up the scanning equipment while he sat on the edge of the bed.  
  
How did he manage to figure out how to do that since his last visit? It hadn’t been that long; this guy was absurd. Emil sat down at his desk and tapped away at some keys for a moment before replying.  
  
“I…was uncomfortable with the idea that you could track my location at all times,” Emil said carefully, “But it is no longer a problem, now-why did you miss our last appointment?”  
  
Aiden let it go; he could understand the need for privacy, he would have done the same thing had he the intellect needed to create such a thing.  
  
“I was working in another city, so I couldn’t make it, sorry,” Aiden said breezily.  
  
Emil just made a slight disgruntled noise in response to his useless answer.  
  
“The spread has increased significantly,” Emil murmured, “Much faster than early periods of the same duration-at least forty-percent faster; what have you been doing differently?”  
  
Aiden tilted his head in thought.  
  
“I’ve been attempting more internal uses of Ki, enhancing my muscles, splitting my energy, stuff like that,” Aiden answered easily. “It’s the first time I’ve been using it like this.”  
  
“I see, then the most likely answer is that of internal vs. external usage.” Emil murmured, “The more often your body is exposed to larger or denser portions of Ki, the faster the spread becomes in response; Aiden, you said you are aware of what will happen once your entire body is exposed to these cells?”  
  
“Yeah,” Aiden answered idly.  
  
“Is it going to result in something dangerous?” Emil said, frowning, “Do you need to be quarantined?”  
  
“Oh, no, nothing like that,” Aiden said, surprised; he hadn’t realized he had given the man that impression. “I guess I should have just told you instead of messing around; it’s another transformation.”  
  
Emil stared at him with narrow eyes.  
  
“Another transformation like the enormous ape that you were using as an excuse to try and get me to cut off your tail?” Emil said waspishly.  
  
“No, this one is very different,” Aiden laughed, suddenly hyperaware of his tail curled around his waist. “A simple hair color change and an increased amount of Ki.”  
  
“A hair color-this is ludicrous,” Emil snorted, “These transformations have absolutely nothing to do with each other.”  
  
“I didn’t make them okay?” Aiden defended, “Blame the guy that wrote-uh-experimented on me.”  
  
Emil scoffed and fell silent once more.  
  
“Hey, I managed to convince Tracy to start on that Gravity room idea,” Aiden said thoughtfully, “Think you can still handle the licensing and room situation for that?”  
  
“Yes,” Emil said distractedly, “Tracy already called me; we’ve spoken about it already. I’ve located a warehouse near the river that should suffice.”  
  
Damn, Emil was efficient, and Tracy worked fast.  
  
“Thanks, Emil,” Aiden said honestly, “Think there will be anything interesting to learn about how my body performs under higher levels of gravity? Think we could make some kind of Ki measuring system?”  
  
Emil turned to face him again, looking interested.  
  
“Yes.” Emil asked bluntly, “I can put a basic scan system inside the room to attempt to measure the increase in Ki and keep track of the biometric growth-it will like take a while to design, however. You’ve been particularly secretive about these things in the past, are you changing your stance now?”  
  
He’d known the guy for a while now, and he’d seemingly kept on the up and up. He hadn’t, as far as he knew, given his information to anyone; Emil had also handled all of the licensing for the gravity situation apparently before he had even gotten around to asking the man.  
  
He was a total bro.  
  
“Yeah,” Aiden said easily, “I’m pretty sure you're not going to sell me out by now, not to mention that you’ve done a lot to help me so far.”  
  
Emil nodded firmly before turning back to his computer.  
  


* * *

  
Apartment, Philadelphia, 9:53 PM.  
August 8th, 2010.  
  
“For those of you just tuning in-less than half an hour ago, the Miami Beach University was attacked by what eyewitnesses have described as some kind of grey fog-” The newscaster turned his head and spoke to someone away from the microphone for a few moments.  
  
Aiden nodded to himself; that would be the Serling situation coming to a head; they had managed to stop it pretty easily, so he wasn’t worried.  
  
“We are getting reports that a similar attack is being carried out on a business downtown-two almost simultaneous attacks, could this be countrywide? No information on which location in Philadelphia was-no wait,” The news Caster said urgently, “Star Labs has just collapsed, a strange grey fog was seen nearby, that’s all the information we have for now. Emergency services are on route as we speak-”  
  
His mask was on his face, and he was halfway out the door in a moment. How could he have forgotten that? It hadn’t been random locations the fog attacked; it had been places with blueprints or technology the fog could steal the designs for the League of Shadows.  
  
“Fuck.” Aiden said quietly, and the wind rushing past stole the word.  
  
All of his medical data was housed in that facility, which meant that the League of Shadows now had information on him, some of which could be used against him, as the transformation during the full moon or the fact that his tail was his weak point.  
  
He arrived at the ruins of Star Labs about the same time as whoever was inside the invisible ship hovering above the city, and he immediately caught up to it, before landing on the roof. He walked along the length of it until he was standing right in front of the two signatures at what he assumed was the front of the ship.  
  
He crossed his arms and stared right at the invisible but smaller signature. They obviously discovered him because one of them got up and moved to the ship's roof before opening up a small section.  
  
“Bubbles, what are you doing here?” Robin said seriously.  
  
“I was going to ask you the same thing, Robin.” Aiden said bluntly, “I have a vested stake in the building below me that just got destroyed, so I’m really, really pissed off; where did that grey fog go?”  
  
“You’re after it, too, huh?” Robin said, surprised, “We are scanning for its next location now, but it’s most likely still in the city.”  
  
“I’ll be coming along, hope you don’t mind,” Aiden said flatly.  
  
“Uh, sure,” Robin responded, “Come on, then, I can’t fly the ship from out here.”  
  
Aiden followed him down into the hatch and touched down at the base of the ladder Robin had been climbing. Superboy was standing by the console staring at him with hard eyes.  
  
“Superboy,” Aiden greeted as Robin sat back at the console.  
  
“Who is he?” Superboy muttered darkly.  
  
“Remember, I told you about that mission that went bad; that’s the bodyguard that KF tried to tackle.” Robin said distractedly, “Don’t worry about him, he liked that building, so he’s going to help us, stay cool.”  
  
“Fill me in on the situation?” Aiden asked without care, staring out the window at the city.  
  
“That fog is a swarm of nanobots, made by Serling Roquette-” Robin said idly.  
  
“That’s the scientist that got kidnapped a while back?” Aiden asked simply, already knowing it was.  
  
“Yes, she was forced to create it by the League of Shadows,” Robin continued, “They are stealing all the technology, data, and plans from all the companies they can get there greedy little bots into.”  
  
“My own information was stored in that building,” Aiden said darkly, “So the League of Shadows has it now?”  
  
Robin glanced over his shoulder at him for a moment and hesitated. Superboy hadn’t stopped staring at him since he’d gotten on the ship.  
  
“Yeah,” Robin said simply.  
  
The ship had started moving further towards the center of the city, and they remained in an uncomfortable silence during the flight, with just the tapping of keys to break the tension.  
  
“The next target is a Wayne Tech Facility!” Robin said harshly, “We need to stop it before it manages to get into any of the systems there.”  
  
Superboy finally looked away and down to his friend, as he opened the door on the back of the ship.  
  
“There are people on the sidewalk and inside the building,” Superboy said, frowning.  
  
“Wayne Tech runs a twenty-four-hour workforce; we will never be able to evacuate the building in time,” Robin said urgently. “But it shouldn’t matter, Serling is sending the virus now-”  
  
“Don’t need it,” Superboy said before jumping out the back hanger of the ship.  
  
Aiden followed him out immediately, angling down towards where he was falling. There was a black van there, a man with a red-eye in the middle of a full-face helmet and a large canister. The man noticed their approach and immediately blasted Superboy with some kind of eye laser, launching him back through the air.  
  
“Hey, asshole!” Aiden called out, swerving to avoid the follow-up attack. “Give me back my shit!”  
  
A grey cloud burst out of the end of the container simultaneously as he stomped on the back of the van, tore through the side of it, and grabbed the man by the face. The man shouted in panic, and his eye started to glow, so he stuck his finger through the glass and shattered the device before peeling it off.  
  
The man stared at him in horror.  
  
“Wheres my information?” Aiden demanded, lifting the guy up by his head.  
  
“I’m not telling you anything!” The guy gritted out.  
  
“Dickhead.” Aiden accused and tossed him out of the truck towards where Superboy was now standing watching them.  
  
Superboy knocked the guy out without fuss and turned to him.  
  
“Are you a Kryptonian?” Superboy asked quietly.  
  
“Nah,” Aiden sighed, “I’m a ‘Saiyan’ technically, but I’m really just a human who got experimented on. What about you, kid?”  
  
“Half-Kryptonian,” Superboy muttered.  
  
The amount of Ki he could sense in the guy was almost exactly the same as everyone else he had met.  
  
“Did you get all the powers?” Aiden asked curiously, “I noticed you didn’t fly away from that attack.”  
  
“No, I didn’t.” Superboy gritted his teeth.  
  
Aiden watched him for a moment; he could probably earn some goodwill with the guy if he taught him how to use his Ki to fly. It would take a while before he had built up enough of the energy to actually be able to do it, but he had a feeling he would be pretty motivated.  
  
“If you ever want to learn how to fly like me,” Aiden said easily on a whim, floating off the ground. “Come find me, I’ll teach you; it’s something anyone can learn.”  
  
Superboy’s eyes went wide at the comment, but Aiden was already halfway to the Wayne Tech building entrance. He touched down next to the hole in the doors and stepped inside before striding past the front desk.  
  
“Hey! You can’t come in here!” The security guard said incredulously, “ _Who are you, people_?”  
  
“That first guy was Batman’s Sidekick; Robin. We are trying to stop that grey fog from killing everyone here, evacuate the building immediately,” Aiden said firmly and clapped his hands loudly when the guy didn’t move. “Get your ass in gear, man, if people die because you are too busy freaking out, then I’m going to be pissed.”  
  
“Right!” The guy said before hitting an emergency button under his desk.  
  
He left the guy behind, following the trail of destruction through the building; the machines had eaten holes through walls, windows, ceilings, desks, and everything else in between. Most of the lights had been destroyed along the way, either from cut cabling or the lights themselves having been eaten by the fog.  
  
Robin was standing in front of a desk in a large room when he spotted him, and red goo was slowly sloping down from the ceiling.  
  
“What the hell is that?” Aiden said, frowning, stepping away from it.  
  
“The virus worked,” Robin said, sounding relieved, “The fog is neutralized.”  
  
“Where is the information stored? In the canister?” Aiden asked, frowning.  
  
“It’s already been sent out,” Robin sighed, “We were too late for Star Labs and Miami Beach University, but at least we stopped them from getting anything from Wayne Tech; that’s something, right?”  
  
“Well, the League of Shadows just topped my shit list,” Aiden sighed, leaning against the counter. “Any idea where they are based? I might stop by and kick the crap out of them.”  
  
“We don’t know yet,” Robin said evenly, “You know, I thought you were a villain, you helped The Blue Snowman rob several businesses.”  
  
“Nope, that wasn’t me; I’m a bodyguard for hire,” Aiden affirmed immediately, “Don’t let Batman tell you any differently, or I’ll cry.”  
  
Robin snorted.  
  
“Hey, if you ever end up going after those guys, feel free to invite me along; I’ll help out pro bono,” Aiden said easily, pushing off the wall. “I’ve got a score to settle with them now.”  
  
“I’ll keep you in mind,” Robin said, bemused.  
  
Aiden tossed the kid a wave over his shoulder and left; Tonight was a complete failure on all fronts.


	14. Chapter 14

Apartment, Philadelphia, 8:32 AM.  
August 9th, 2010.  
  
“Aiden,” Dinah said evenly.  
  
Aiden frowned, she’d clearly heard already, but he had been the one who’d needed to call them; how annoying.  
  
“STAR Labs Philadelphia has been destroyed by the League of Shadows, they also have all of my information,” Aiden said dryly, “That doesn’t sound at all like the deal we made.”  
  
There was a long pause before she spoke again.  
  
“Unforeseen events do occur, as unfortunate as this has been,” Dinah said calmly, “Robin and Superboy have both spoken well of you; thank you for assisting them.”  
  
Well, she had clearly given up on beating around the bush entirely; she was diving straight in.  
  
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Aiden said easily. “What can I expect? Assassin’s coming after me? I’m pretty sure my address, phone number, and a bunch of other identifying information were in those files, along with everything about my unique physiology.”  
  
“It’s being looked into as we speak,” Dinah said reassuringly, “You will be under watch in case anyone decides to make a move.”  
  
“You couldn’t have someone keep watch over Star Labs instead?” Aiden pushed, “I think we need to renegotiate here; clearly, only one of us is upholding the spirit of the deal.”  
  
“That’s quite audacious considering what you’ve been up to-” Dinah said immediately, but he cut her off.  
  
“I’ve been up to nothing. But even if I _had_ been, the deal was I would keep your identities secret, along with letting you study my ship, and one of the things _you_ wanted in exchange was monthly health checkups.” Aiden pressed, “Low and behold now all my information is in the hands of an organization of assassins. Now I may not be a mathematician, Dinah, but something doesn’t quite add up.”  
  
“I’m well aware of the specifics of the deal,” Dinah said steadily before there was a long pause. “Very well, we will send someone to talk to you at your home-how does the 15th sound? It will have to be a night meeting.”  
  
Well, if he had any doubts about the League knowing where his new apartment was, they were gone now.  
  
“That’s fine, I’ll be awake until 10:00 PM,” Aiden stipulated, “It will have to be before than some time.”  
  
There was another small pause as if she was talking to someone.  
  
“Very well, well, send someone around nine then,” Dinah said simply.  
  
Aiden didn’t get a chance to ask who they were going to send before she hung up. He’d find out then, he supposed.  
  


* * *

  
Apartment, Philadelphia, 8:49 PM.  
August 15th, 2010.  
  
Aiden stared up at the ceiling impatiently. Eleven minutes until whoever they were going to send turned up. Usually, he was pretty patient when it came to meeting times, but this one had him on edge, and he wasn’t exactly sure why.  
  
They weren’t going to gank him; at least he didn’t think so; if they tried it, he was pretty sure he could get away from most of the League. The worst-case scenario was that they sent Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, or The Flash.  
  
It shouldn’t come to that though; he’d done nothing wrong this time; the ball was in his court, he just needed to apply pressure in the right way.  
  
His phone dinged.  
  
It was Enkidu, inquiring about an immediate patrol meetup. He tossed her a quick message saying he couldn’t do it until later and put his phone back down.  
  
His phone dinged.  
  
Aiden blinked before picking it up again; she was strangely persistent. So he tapped out a stronger response about an appointment at nine. It barely went through before his phone dinged again.  
  
He stared down at it incredulously; she wanted to meet up for coffee, before nine, without masks. What on earth was going on here? She wasn’t flirting with him; he’d dealt with that kind of thing many times, her messages held a tone of almost-panic.  
  
A quick glance at the clock showed it as ‘8:53 PM’; while he could definitely make it to a coffee shop in seven minutes, he couldn’t leave his apartment. He sent off another quick message asking if something was wrong.  
  
The phone dinged immediately.  
  
“Meet me outside now.” Aiden read aloud, completely bewildered.  
  
Was Enkidu actually some kind of freaky stalker? A knock on his door drew his attention, and he dropped his phone on the couch. It dinged again before he got halfway to the door, but he ignored it; she could wait ten minutes for this meeting to be over.  
  
He opened the door and blinked.  
  
“Come to beat me up again?” Aiden laughed.  
  
“Of course not,” Diana of Themyscira said dryly.  
  
“So the League of Shadows stole my stuff,” Aiden said easily, opening the door to let her in.  
  
They moved into the lounge room, and Aiden dropped down onto the couch. Diana sat across from him; she was actually pretty intimidating now that he knew who she was.  
  
“They have,” Diana agreed, “There was an entire server of other information stolen along with it. Is there any reason you can think of that would cause them to target you in particular?”  
  
“I’m not really worried about that at all,” Aiden admitted, “I don’t think they are going to come after me; I have nothing to do with them after all-well they might come after me because of the whole powers thing... I’m upset because they have all my private information, which, by definition, makes it no longer private.”  
  
Diana simply nodded before pausing.  
  
“Do you mind if I check you’ve been holding to the deal?” Diana asked evenly. “We are willing to facilitate your relocation into another city, given you haven’t revealed anything.”  
  
“I thought we were here to talk about how _you guy's_ lost my stuff to a bunch of assassins.” Aiden said dryly, “Fine, stick to the question; same as before, no deviations.”  
  
“I agree to those terms,” Diana said firmly.  
  
It took barely a moment to get the rope around his arm again and ask the question.  
  
“I haven’t told anyone about your identities, and I have no intention of doing so,” Aiden repeated obligingly.  
  
Diana smiled, removing the lasso.  
  
“I’m glad to hear that-” Diana started before the room exploded.  
  
Had he been on guard, he might have been able to react in time, but even with his reflexes, the explosion hit him near instantly; he only managed to bring his Ki up enough to soften the aftermath. Pain rocked him as the building collapsed down on top of him, burying him in a crushing pressure.  
  
Everything went dark, and once the building settled in a massive pile of rubble, Aiden finally brought himself to try and move. It was excruciating; every part of him was in pain; he had something sticking through his right ankle, left upper thigh, and the right shoulder.  
  
For a second, he struggled to find the strength to force himself upwards, until he managed to draw his Ki back up. He let it overflow inside him, and he started pressing upwards until he was digging himself out.  
  
It took almost a minute before he reached the point where he could see anything, and a moment later, he could see the sky. Well, a massive plume of dark smoke that was filling the sky anyway.  
  
Wonder Woman was standing on top of another pile nearby, looking roughed up but mostly unharmed; a couple of bleeding scratches littered her shoulders. Aiden stumbled down to his knees and started coughing, drawing her attention to him in the process.  
  
“Aiden!” Diana called.  
  
“I’m alright, for the next couple of minutes anyway.” Aiden managed, “What exploded?”  
  
“The source is unknown,” Diana said as she approached, and he tried to wave her off.  
  
“Stay over there, I’m still not sure you’re not responsible for this,” Aiden said weakly.  
  
Diana stopped immediately, watching him.  
  
The things that were sticking out of him were pieces of rebar apparently, driven into his hardened body through the force of the explosion. He was covered in blood as well; a gash over his brow was forcing him to brush it away from his eyes.  
  
“I had nothing to do with this,” Diana said honestly.  
  
“I’m pretty sure your right, but the timing says otherwise.” Aiden coughed again, and this time there was blood. “Fuck, that can’t be good.”  
  
He fought his way into a seated position and got a grip around the piece of metal in his ankle.  
  
“Leave it in,” Diana said quickly, “If you remove it now, you’ll start losing blood much faster.”  
  
Aiden paused with his fingers around it, before letting it go. He really should have taken that first aid course his dad had suggested years ago, something to look into if he was still alive in a couple of days. The fact that she was offering him medical advice tipped him over to completely excluding her as the culprit.  
  
Energy signatures appeared in a block to the north, coming as a fast-moving group straight towards them. They were moving too fast to be normal humans, but not fast enough to be driving in a car; at least he thought so. He recognized one of them as the signature of the Ninja girl who had followed him halfway across Central City.  
  
“Motherfucker,” Aiden groaned, pushing himself to his feet with some effort and a lot of pain.  
  
“You shouldn’t be moving.” Diana chastised.  
  
“We have incoming, several people, all moving quickly; one of them is that ninja chick that attacked Selena Gonzalez.” Aiden coughed before straightening as best he could.  
  
His shock was finally washing away, and in its place was that familiar itch to fight, only it was much, much stronger than before, and this time it had a very convenient target.  
  
“Which direction?” Diana said seriously, moving closer to him.  
  
Aiden pointed it out, but most of his attention was on the heady feeling that was building up; had he been uninjured, he might have been able to hold it back, but he couldn’t fight off both the pain and the urge this time.  
  
The first three dark clothed ninjas came sprinting out from the shadows of the northside of the still-standing ruins of the building's structure. Aiden found himself stomping forward to meet them; pain in his ankle momentarily forgotten.  
  
Each of the three was carrying long thin blades, and just before they came into melee range, he blurred forward and grabbed one of them by the face. He spun on his uninjured foot and smashed the guy into one of the others, sending them both tumbling backward into the rubble. The third ninja stabbed at his head, and he swayed to the side and backhanded the guy away, sending him skipping across the ground.  
  
Then he took another step forward and cringed as his foot flared up in agony. The second he glanced down, three metal stars spiked him in the chest, and he snapped his head up to see a flash of green vanishing behind a crumbling pillar and out of sight. Diana was too busy fighting her own much larger ninja group, so he went after the ninja woman.  
  
He stumbled around the pillar and barely got his arm up to shield his face from a smaller, directed explosion that sent him tumbling to the side. He pushed more KI into his body as the woman's sword stabbed downwards at his chest.  
  
The tip snapped off as it came into contact with his hardened skin.  
  
“Another one?” The woman sighed, “Really?”  
  
Aiden didn’t bother replying, instead flipping back to his feet with a burst of Ki and reaching for her.  
  
The woman slipped to the side and swung her broken sword at his face, but it may as well have been in slow motion. He reached out and latched onto the blade before it could reach his eye and tugged her towards him.  
  
The ninja let the weapon go a second to slow, and by the time she had recovered enough to attempt evasion, he snagged her by the arm; he clamped down on it to stop her from escaping. Instead, she stabbed a knife-hand into his throat, that landed with a winch of pain as her fingers bounced off.  
  
Aiden stared at her in silence as she turned his face to the side with another sudden punch, but made no move to let her free. The urge to let her go and continue the fight was sitting there itching away at him.  
  
“Well, this isn’t going exactly like I thought it would.” The woman said, annoyed. “I don’t suppose you’d let me go?”  
  
He had a vague recollection that she might have been important to the plot in some way, although he couldn’t remember any of the details. Something about that Speedy guy?  
  
“You blew up my apartment building,” Aiden gritted out. “While I was in it-I’ve got _metal_ sticking out of me, and It fucking hurts; I’m doing my best not to turn you into the only one-armed ninja in the city.”  
  
“That sounds painful,” The woman said dryly. “I’d rather keep it if that’s alright.”  
  
Smoke suddenly burst forth from one of her pockets, swallowing them both and reducing visibility to nothing before a dull crack rang out within the smoke.  
  
“Aiden?” Diana called from nearby.  
  
“I’m here,” Aiden said, annoyed, before sending out a burst of Ki to disperse the smoke.  
  
“Well, that didn’t work,” The ninja winced as her dislocated shoulder remained clamped tightly in his grasp. “Ow.”  
  
“Idiot.” Aiden sighed.  
  


* * *

  
Hospital, Philadelphia, 10:17 PM.  
August 15th, 2010.  
  
“Well, this feels familiar,” Aiden sighed painfully. “They wouldn’t have any reason to come after me, huh?”  
  
He was sitting in a room, in a hospital bed, across from Diana. At least this time, he wasn’t shackled to a table. On the other hand, he would have preferred the shackles instead of the searing agony that was his shoulder, thigh, and ankle right now.  
  
“Why did they come after you?” Diana said evenly.  
  
“Capture? Recruit? An experiment maybe, it’s not the first time that one’s happened after all.” Aiden tossed out his guesses, “Who knows, isn’t this your job? I’m just a dude with terrible luck. Besides, the entire reason you even came was to discuss the renegotiations.”  
  
Diana sighed.  
  
“So, now my apartment is gone, the STAR Labs here is destroyed, and the League of Shadows is after me.” Aiden said thoughtfully, “I think I might need to move.”  
  
“Yes, that does seem like a good decision,” Diana said simply. “Do you intend to continue your checkups?”  
  
“Is there any more Star Labs around?” Aiden countered, “I’m fine with keeping the deal, but I’m going to have to ask you guys for some compensation.”  
  
“I’ll discuss it with the others.” Diana said before moving on, “There are many cities where STAR Labs has a business; Boston, New York City, Gotham City, Detroit, and Taos, to name a few.”  
  
“Boston sounds alright,” Aiden said sullenly. “Ugh, I just realized it’s going to take like a month to get my insurance paid out. Looks like it’s back to living in a hotel.”  
  
“I’ll bring it up at the meeting,” Diana promised, “Despite what happened, you managed to capture Cheshire, one of the more notable members of the League of Shadows, that’s a pretty impressive achievement.”  
  
It was a human with a pointy stick, a _very_ skilled and dangerous human, but it wasn’t exactly a fair match up. If they’d had equalized speed, strength and durability, she would have killed him instantly.  
  
“Hurray,” Aiden said unenthusiastically. “Is this where you try and recruit me? I’m not really interested in being a hero; I hear it pays terribly.”  
  
“You could do a lot of good,” Diana said idly, “But the choice is yours if you ever change your mind, you just need to let me know.”  
  
That sounded like a point he could lean on to get something he sorely needed.  
  
“Hey, speaking of help, that fight made me realize that I suck pretty badly,” Aiden said thoughtfully, “Think we could swing some sparring sessions; you looked like you knew what you were doing.”  
  
Diana gave a thoughtful hum before slowly nodding.  
  
“I think we could do something like that,” Diana agreed, “They will be fairly infrequent; however, I am quite busy.”  
  
“Sounds good to me,” Aiden said before wincing again as he jarred his shoulder; the bandages were kind of pulling against the wounds as well. “Might be a while before I’m up to anything like that, though.”


	15. Chapter 15

Hotel, Philadelphia, 9:52 PM.  
August 22nd, 2010.  
  
“Well shit,” Byrna said dejectedly. “What am I supposed to do then? I can’t keep trying my luck-Virago is still on my case.”  
  
Aiden couldn’t help but roll his eyes before he trapped the phone between his ear and shoulder.  
  
“Just stop robbing places, obviously,” Aiden said incredulously. “It's not that hard.”  
  
“If I could just stop, I would have,” Byrna said, annoyed, “Come on, just hang around for a little bit longer. I really need the money.”  
  
“Why don’t you ask Selena?” Aiden huffed.  
  
“I _did_!” Byrna complained, “She doesn’t like lending me money, for reasons I’m _never_ going to tell you; she told me to get a better job instead.”  
  
Ouch, Selena was ruthless. It was pretty funny, though.  
  
“Stop laughing!” Byrna cried in outrage.  
  
“Sorry,” Aiden laughed before shaking his head. “Look, I’ll be in Boston by the end of this month, one way or another.”  
  
There was a groan of pure suffering, and he rolled his eyes again.  
  
“Tell me why you need the money and how much,” Aiden said leadingly. “In that order.”  
  
Byrna groaned again but finally cracked.  
  
“Look, my housing situation is complicated-the barebones is, my dad had a deal with the original owners who owed him a lot of money to live in the house free of charge,” Byrna said quickly; he could vaguely remember Selena mentioning it. “When dad died, they reneged on the whole free of charge thing, but they were kind enough to keep the price down enough that I could afford it on my teacher's wage.”  
  
Aiden couldn’t find within him a single fuck to give about her tragic rental backstory, but you reap what you sow, and he had made the mistake of asking; he would learn from this mistake.  
  
“Okay, I get it, leaving you with most of your income paying for the rented ‘family home,’” Aiden interjected carelessly, “Why not work out a deal to buy the house off them? The mortgage repayments would probably be lower than whatever they are asking you to pay.”  
  
“I wasn’t finished!” Byrna cried, “You ass!”  
  
“Fine,” Aiden whined; life was suffering.  
  
“The owners died about six months ago,” Byrna said caustically, and he blinked. “Their daughter inherited the house, she knew about the deal already, but she’s a total bitch and sold the house.”  
  
What the hell kind of twisty story was this?! This was some soapy day-time television bullshit right here.  
  
“Then her deceased mothers, ex-husband decided he wanted his fair share of the inheritance,” Aiden interjected. “But it turns out that he actually had a closer claim to it then the daughter because he was, in fact, the mothers biological-”  
  
“ _Shut up!_ I’m almost done.” Byrna cried in outrage. “The new owners got the lower rent rate overturned, now I have to pay the full rate, and it's way too much. The only way I can even keep up is to-”  
  
“Oh my god, lady,” Aiden whined, “You could have just said that you can’t afford the rent. Here's a novel solution for you; move out, find somewhere cheaper. Boom. Problem solved.”  
  
“I don’t want to move out!” Byrna complained, “I grew up here!”  
  
“So? It's just a house!” Aiden said firmly, “Between the jacked-up payments, the full-time job that you don’t even like, and the constant risk of being jailed-you’re being crushed under the weight, but it’s a weight of your own making.”  
  
“Stop talking about weight!” Byrna cried, “You’re making me nervous!”  
  
“For the love of-” Aiden rolled his eyes for the umpteenth time. “Here: quit your job, move out, and come work for me in Boston; I need to recruit someone who can make all this science stuff anyway.”  
  
Byrna was quiet for a long moment.  
  
“Where would I stay?” Byrna said nervously, sounding quite a bit out of her depth. “What would I be doing?”  
  
“A hotel room, for now. I’m staying in one until my new apartment is ready to move in; I’m waiting on another guy whos looking into warehouses, although I have some help on that front.” Aiden said vaguely.  
  
Calvin was handling the apartment stuff, while Emil and Tracy were handling finding a warehouse for the gravity room.  
  
“My next paycheck isn’t for another week,” Byrna said hesitantly, “I won’t have enough to stay in a hotel for long.”  
  
Aiden had meant that he would pay for her hotel room, but clearly, it had been lost in translation.  
  
“It’s fine; you can crash on my couch until your up and running again,” Aiden said easily, upping the pressure; a bit more, and she was likely to fold. “How much do you make a year?”  
  
“Um,” Byrna said awkwardly, “Sixty?”  
  
“Bullshit,” Aiden said immediately.  
  
She was the worst liar in the history of liars.  
  
“Fifty-one,” Byrna said embarrassedly.  
  
“Yikes,” Aiden did some quick mental math, “What do you take home a year, forty?”  
  
“Yes,” Byrna coughed.  
  
Somewhere around three thousand a month, she’d mentioned that she paid a bit lower than that in rent earlier. People really didn’t understand the concept of living below their means, and what the hell was up with a teacher’s wage? That was some bullshit.  
  
“I’ll match that; Keep in mind if you take the offer, it will end up being higher once we have more cash flow.” Aiden said easily, “You coming to Boston, or do I need to go chat up Killer Frost?”  
  
He could almost see her biting her lip in indecision.

* * *

  
Hotel rooftop, Boston, 11:02 PM.  
September 7th, 2010.  
  
Aiden stepped out of the stairwell onto the roof, almost immediately spotting the person who had called him here. He walked casually over to the ledge and sat down beside her.  
  
“So, you somehow knew about when the League of Shadows were going to blow up my apartment.” Aiden said curiously, “Are you one of them?”  
  
Enkidu looked like she was measuring her response before turning to face him more fully and spoke very deliberately.  
  
“I am not a member of the League of Shadows,” Enkidu said slowly.  
  
There was a very noticeable pause at the end, indicating quite clearly that she was leaving something unsaid. Something was definitely going on here; she was trying to tell him something without actually saying anything.  
  
Alright then, he’d play the game; he turned his mind to the task.  
  
Assuming she was being honest, which made the most sense given that she had been attempting to help him, she was not a member of the League of Shadows, but she was suggesting _something_. A former member, perhaps? If she were a former member, there should be no reason that she would be unable to tell him anything. It could be that by her telling him at all, she would somehow indicate to them that she was the one who had leaked the information.  
  
From what he had seen of both Enkidu and the members of the League of Shadows so far, she would have been able to defeat the ones they had sent after him without much effort, she was actually a trained combatant, and her strength and speed _far_ surpassed a base human.  
  
He studied her face for a moment before looking away, time to prune some possibilities.  
  
“Those guys really went after me, kind of scary, right?” Aiden asked casually. “Are _you_ afraid of the League of Shadows, Enkidu?”  
  
She smiled.  
  
“I really don’t like that group,” Enkidu said easily, “I don’t think any of them are truly a threat to me, though; you’ve seen what I’m like in a fight. At least so long as they don’t manage to sneak up on me; that _is_ kind of their thing, though.”  
  
Not afraid of reprisals from them for leaking the information or speaking about them so generally, and she was obviously not a fan of the group. She was still involved enough with them to have insider knowledge somehow. What kind of circumstances forced you to work with a group you didn’t like when you weren’t afraid of them?  
  
Oh.  
  
“I’ve been thinking of starting a _group_ myself; I think I mentioned it to you a while back,” Aiden said idly, glancing over and studying her face. “You remember that?”  
  
“I do,” Enkidu said evenly, meeting his eyes.  
  
“There’s a lot of issues that might crop up; I mean, what if somewhere down the line the people that join my group want to _quit_?” Aiden said curiously, “If they knew a lot of my secrets or my identity, I might not be able to just let them do whatever they pleased. How would I go about keeping them from talking about any of that? Hmm.”  
  
Enkidu watched him quietly for a moment.  
  
“You’re looking for ideas?” Enkidu said intently, and he nodded non-commitally. “I suppose as the _leader_ of _your_ group _,_ you could cut out their tongues that would _silence_ them.”  
  
Leader of the group, keeping them silent. Since she still had her tongue, that must have meant ‘keep them from talking’ with some kind of pressure or control from above. This seemed a little bit above his pay grade; who exactly was she working for? He wished he had watched more of the show when he had the chance.  
  
Who were the big players that would use force or control to keep their minions in line? A player who would ally themselves with the League of Shadows, closely enough that their own minions would know when they were attacking targets. Lex Luthor was the obvious one, but it did not jog any memories. He was one of the people in that shadow group; he could vaguely remember that.  
  
Aiden closed his eyes and focused.  
  
Enkidu was working for someone. That, someone, was working with the League of Shadows. The League of Shadows was probably working for Lex Luthor, or whoever else was on that shadow council or all of them.  
  
Enkidu’s ‘leader’ might even be _on_ that council.  
  
If that were the case, and she was doing her best to tell him, through whatever _control_ they had over her, she was obviously an unwilling participant who wanted out. So how did he use what he knew here to get her on his side?  
  
Control, control, control.  
  
“It’s a funny thing, control,” Aiden said distractedly, and Enkidu’s eyes widened slightly. “You sometimes have it, and sometimes someone has it over you. Friends, family, authority figures, the government, life. They all have some form of control over you, it can be hard to see at first, but it’s there.”  
  
One of those things that he had noticed while growing up, particularly in those early years of high school. You did not have much control then, and everyone around you was seemingly scrambling for it. You could not decide where you wanted to go or who you got to spend time with, not without getting some kind of okay from whoever was the one on top.  
  
Maybe it was your _parents_ , boxing you in with guidelines to follow; some were tough, some were strict, some easy, and some he didn’t want to think about. It could be your _friends_ , throwing that social pressure around, and deciding who you were allowed to talk to and who was to be shunned. It could take a hundred different forms or more, but the end result was the same; they wanted to be the one holding the leash.  
  
So who was it that held Enkidu’s leash? A parent? A friend? Or something more abstract?  
  
“You got any friends, Enkidu?” Aiden said curiously, “Besides me, of course.”  
  
Enkidu twitched minutely at the question before tilting her head.  
  
“I’m not sure I’d call them friends.” Enkidu said carefully, “But sure.”  
  
Not friends, but people in the same position as her, relatively at least; every organization had a structure, a pecking order.  
  
“Co-workers?” Aiden offered indifferently.  
  
“I know a lot of people.” Enkidu shrugged.  
  
Pretty vague, sort of friends, sort of co-workers, in the same boat as her, a lot of them, different jobs?  
  
“Got any family?” Aiden said idly.  
  
Enkidu did not say anything; he glanced over; she was staring straight at him. Interestingly, she could not or would not answer such a direct question. That was most likely a yes then, a big family if her previous comments were anything to go by.  
  
“I was an only child myself,” Aiden said thoughtfully, “I always thought it would have been interesting to have a sibling. I think I would have spent a lot of time with them, what do you think?”  
  
“Hypothetically, I agree that it would be interesting to have a sibling,” Enkidu said carefully. “I probably wouldn’t spend much time with them in that case.”  
  
Enkidu worked alone, but she had many ‘siblings.’ If I were trying to convey a specific thing, someone whom I had a complicated relationship with, but I could not actually say anything…  
  
“When I think of a sibling, I think we would look-alike,” Aiden suggested, “If you did have a sibling, would they look a lot like you?”  
  
“It’s a nice night,” Enkidu said evenly, very slowly turning to look to her left and then to the right.  
  
Siblings, Co-workers, Not-friends, lots, different roles within the organization, different tasks, they looked different. The first thing that had come to mind was that she was a clone and that her other ‘siblings’ were also clones. There was plenty of that going around in comic books, so it had made sense.  
  
Now he wasn’t so sure; if they didn’t look alike at all, it _probably_ wasn’t cloning.  
  
“If I had a brother, I think we would have gotten into a lot of fights,” Aiden laughed easily, “Developed a rivalry, that kind of thing. How about you?”  
  
“Most likely,” Enkidu said evenly, studying his face.  
  
“My dad taught me a lot, especially about business, but he rode me pretty hard,” Aiden said thoughtfully, thinking back and trying to ignore the pang in his chest. “Lot of good memories, just as many bad. Your parents still around?”  
  
“My parents are both gone,” Enkidu said flatly, without any detail.  
  
A big tonal shift, anger, a sore spot. Had they done something to them? Aiden studied her for a moment; her costume was good quality, much better than anything he had made. It looked professionally done, and she apparently had enough money to fly all over America whenever she pleased.  
  
“How old are you again?” Aiden asked curiously.  
  
“Nineteen,” Enkidu said, bemused at the non-sequitur.  
  
A nineteen-year-old with a lot of money to play with, apparently.  
  
“You got a job? A paying job, I mean, during the day.” Aiden clarified, “None of that hero nonsense.”  
  
“No.” Enkidu huffed, “and I’m feeling personally attacked right now.”  
  
Aiden grinned.  
  
No job, no parents, lots of money. Either her parents were well off and left her with a tidy sum, or she had a benefactor who was paying for her gear, this mysterious ‘leader’ no doubt.  
  
“You got any savings?” Aiden prodded, smirking.  
  
“No,” Enkidu said, annoyed.  
  
Mysterious benefactor, it was.  
  
“How long have you been able to kick criminal ass in hand to hand combat?” Aiden prompted, narrowing in on his next lead. “Or jump straight up to the rooftops from an alleyway?”  
  
He saw her eyebrow rise behind her mask.  
  
“Two years,” Enkidu said with interest.  
  
She’d been able to answer that easily, how curious; only had her powers for two years, she wasn’t able to talk about certain things without some unknown repercussion, she had many ‘siblings, not friends, co-workers, possibly rivals,’ her parents were dead, and her unknown ‘leader,’ who was probably a villain, controlled the purse strings, and everything else in her life.  
  
She wanted out.  
  
“If you said something-hmm, _bad_ , would someone die tonight?” Aiden said curiously.  
  
“Yes,” Enkidu said simply, apparently it was vague enough to answer.  
  
Well shit.  
  
“This was fun; we should do it again-Last question for now,” Aiden said, yawning, and Enkidu nodded. “You or me.”  
  
“Me,” Enkidu said, smiling, standing up and giving a little wave. “See you around.”  
  
“Yeah,” Aiden said easily. “See you.”  
  
Either there were snipers following her around with a gun pointed at her head at all times, or she was a 'bomb' of some sort waiting to explode. What form the bomb took was academic; it might have been poison or explosive in nature for all he knew, or it might have been a threat to the people she knew, her remaining loved ones. It might have been some kind of magically enforced comic book nonsense, or something else in a similar vein.  
  
Whatever form the 'control' took; it was able to somehow track what she said and knew the guidelines of what could be said and what could not-but it wasn't picking up on hints or vague deception. Probably not a human overseer, a magical AI of some kind going over her words? Her attempts at working around an oath? A recording device didn’t really make sense. This conversation would have been incredibly suspicious if that was true; Enkidu wouldn’t have done it this way if that was the case; a written note would have been safer.  
  
The situation made no sense to him.  
  
A girl apparently developed superpowers when she was seventeen, was recruited into some kind of organization for two years, had a figurative or literal control bomb placed in her to ensure compliance, and was then sent out to be a _hero?_ What kind of twisted mental gymnastics did you have to do to think that was a good idea? Forcing someone to be a hero absolutely wasn’t a moral action, regardless of whether or not that person went on to save lives; It was enslavement, plain, and simple.  
  
Even if you bypassed the moral problems with it, why would a villain forcibly make a _hero_?  
  
Aiden didn’t know.


	16. Chapter 16

_West Ritner, Philadelphia, 01:02 AM.  
September 10th, 2010._  
  
The early morning must have been dark as Aiden touched down, but his eyes had no issue picking out Byrna Brilyant standing on the doorstep. He glanced down at the single luggage bag she had on her-the extended handle of which was resting snug against her hip.  
  
“I was expecting a lot more boxes, to be honest?” Aiden said curiously.  
  
“It’s already been moved to a storage container in Boston,” Byrna said imperiously.  
  
“Huh,” Aiden blinked.  
  
Byrna smiled in the dark, flicking her long thick hair over her shoulder, clearly impressed with herself. Aiden rolled his eyes; why had he needed to pick her up then? Whatever. He strode forward, ducking down to slip his fingers into the handle on the bag before letting it dangle from his palm. Without bothering to wait, he scooped her legs out from under her and lifted off the ground.  
  
“Hey!” Byrna squawked, “A little warning next time-Whoa! The city looks awesome from up here!”  
  
“Doesn’t it?” Aiden grinned.  
  
He was in complete agreement; flying had to be the single greatest ability that he had access to. Everything looked incredible when you were gliding unaided through the air.  
  
“So, what made you change your mind?” Aiden said curiously.  
  
Byrna had wanted time to think about it-which was a good idea, really; making such a life-changing decision at the drop of a hat would have been incredibly impulsive. It spoke well of her faculties that she’d given it two weeks thought before deciding. Not that he’d been expecting it-despite what he would tell anyone that asked-he’d assumed he’d messed the recruitment pitch up and given it up as a bad job.  
  
“I’m a teacher for the early years-usually anyway. Still, there's been a flu going around, so we were all curious about how exactly-” Byrna started excitedly.  
  
Aiden stared at the woman in his hands in horror; why the hell had he asked again? He had no choice but to listen to the twisted tale that, at some point, somehow included the price of Tea in China.  
  
“-Anyway, I had to sub for one of them,” Byrna said, muttered, embarrassedly. “Now-If you have _ever_ had a substitute teacher before, well, those little bastards had me crying in seven minutes-”  
  
“Fantastic,” Aiden interrupted incredulously once he’d finally received his answer. “You need to learn to summarize-and prune off all that extra nonsense that had absolutely nothing to do with the question.”  
  
“ _It did!”_ Byrna cried in outrage, “You had to know how they got sick in the first place! Or the rest of the story wouldn’t have made sense!”  
  
Aiden scrunched up his face in agony as she launched into a detailed description of why it was important.  
  
 _What had he done?_  
  


* * *

  
  
 _Empty Warehouse(Waynetech), Boston, 8:02 AM.  
September 11th, 2010._  
  
Two steps closer in an instant, and he was already raising his hand to block the obvious right hook.  
  
Once again, he was somehow completely surprised as her _left fist_ slipped between his ineffective guard and crashed into his cheek. The force of the jab sent him into a half spin, and he tried to turn the force into a spinning backhand that completely missed as Diana stopped on a dime.  
  
He watched in slow motion as the back of his hand cut past her face. Diana’s eyes came into view as the momentum carried him into a barely controllable spin, and his left arm only made it halfway up before her right hand slipped behind his head, twisting tightly into his hair.  
  
Diana hopped up into the air at the exact same moment as she ripped his head downwards, and her knee landed with a crack, sending him reeling back to his feet-only she didn’t let go. He took another knee to the face before he managed to get his hands into a position to block the next one. Not that it mattered because she tossed another knee at him and then punched him squared in the face when his hands dropped to stop her thigh cold.  
  
Aiden gritted his teeth as he stumbled backward; goddammit, he’d never been beaten so badly in his life. It was _much_ less painful than he would have expected, but that was undoubtedly a combination of her pulling her punches and his sheer durability.  
  
He had barely settled back into an upright stance when the metal disc that was her shield bounced off his head, sending him rocking back another step. The shield arced high into the air as she came sprinting back towards him.  
  
The momentum of the shield bled away, and it started to drop once more. Aiden took two steps forward, an attempt to have some momentum of his own on his side as Diana reached him. The shield fell directly between them as he sent a punch straight past it towards her face.  
  
Diana palmed it out wide, spun _downward_ before her leg flicked upwards, and sent the shield smashing once more into his face. This time he hadn’t recovered as she plucked the shield out of the air and pressed the offensive once more.  
  
He reacted more on instinct than anything else, sending a burst of invisible Ki behind him to send him rocketing forwards, while drawing as much of it as he could into his right arm, and swung forward as Roshi’s technique took effect, rapidly increasing the muscle mass in his arm.  
  
Diana’s eyes went wide, but even having caught her completely flat-footed, she still managed to get the shield up between them as his enlarged fist crashed into it. She slid backward from the force, digging twin trenches in the concrete floor before she managed to halt herself.  
  
“How did you even block that?!” Aiden complained, adrenaline coursing through him. “I thought I had you that time.”  
  
“I almost didn’t block it in time,” Diana admitted easily, “How did you change direction so quickly?”  
  
“Energy released behind me to propel me in the opposite direction,” Aiden said easily before blinking.  
  
He was a lot more forthright than usual, probably due to the excitement he felt washing through him at the combat. He’d have to watch out for that in the future; he didn’t want to start monologuing in the middle of a fight.  
  
“You should use it more often,” Diana said thoughtfully, “Can you expel it from behind your elbows or legs?”  
  
Aiden tilted his head in thought; he hadn’t thought to try and use it like that. It had been a flash of brilliance in the middle of the fight that had even caused him to do it in the first place-not something he had _trained_ himself to do. He was being pressured, and the solution had come to him-almost by instinct.  
  
“I’ll attempt to figure it out; I don’t see why I couldn’t,” Aiden said curiously. “Hey, Diana; how’d you get so good at this anyway?”  
  
Diana blinked before lowering her shield to reply. The second she opened her mouth, he used another Ki Burst to dash forward across the room, trying to sneak attack her. He saw the edge of her mouth twist up into a smirk before she spun out of the way, apparently expecting his underhanded tactics by now.  
  
Dammit.

* * *

  
 _Apartment, Boston, 7:02 AM.  
September 13th, 2010._  
  
“Home, sweet home,” Aiden said easily, stepping inside for the first time.  
  
It much much the same as the last apartment and fully furnished to boot, although the location of the building wasn’t as central. That did have the benefit of lowering the price quite a bit, though, so he could deal with a little extra travel time.  
  
There was one of those three-seaters lounges with the extra bit hanging off that he’d seen around. Byrna rolled her luggage bag over to it and flopped over on it with an indecipherable groan.  
  
“You’ve still got some money, don’t you?” Aiden said curiously, “Buy a single bed or something to put against the wall if you don’t want to sleep on the couch.”  
  
“It’s not bad,” Byrna mumbled into the cushions, “I can survive this.”  
  
Aiden rolled his eyes at the dramatics, taking a seat on one of the two high stools at the floating bench in the kitchen. According to Tracy, the Design for the Gravity room was going well; Emil had apparently come through on a warehouse, although he hadn’t seen it yet.  
  
He hadn’t managed to speak to the man since his apartment had exploded either, but it was only a week until his next appointment was supposed to be scheduled. He’d have to locate where the Star labs were in Boston proper.  
  
He’d learn from Diana that Chesire had been placed in ‘Belle Reve Penitentiary’ whose name rung a bell; he was pretty sure that was one of the things that tended to crop up in DC. He’d also learned they were learning a wealth of information about his ‘Ships’ construction.  
  
Apparently, they had set off some kind of defense protocol during the process because it refused to output anything on the monitors any more. He was a little annoyed at that, but there was a general consensus that it might start working again if Aiden were to make an attempt to turn it on.  
  
He’d told them to set up a day for it, but nobody contacted him about that yet.  
  
“Alright,” Aiden said thoughtfully, “I’ve got a warehouse in the works, should be enough space for your equipment if you want to set up there; have you given any thought to rebranding?”  
  
Byrna rolled over enough to free her face from the curtain of thick black hair.  
  
“A little?” Byrna admitted. “I still want to be ice-themed-its what I’m most comfortable with.”  
  
“Cool,” Aiden said wryly, earning a snort of indignation. “Think you can come up with some defensive tech?”  
  
Byrna propped her cheek up on her palm.  
  
“Ice walls,” Byrna said cheekily.  
  
“Incredible,” Aiden said deadpanned. "Nobody will ever see that coming; how about some kind of simple defensive suit a client can wear? It doesn’t need to be able to attack or anything, just armor.”  
  
Byrna blinked at the idea.  
  
“Make a suit for someone else?” Byrna mumbled, “I never thought of doing that- if the suit doesn’t need cryo-I could dump most of the power modules and use the remaining ones to power the movement of the suit.”  
  
Aiden probably wouldn’t have been able to hear her if his ears weren’t what they were.  
  
Her circumstance had been pretty adverse to any kind of altruistic design goals. A villain hiding her identity wouldn’t be thinking about making anything for anyone else, really.  
  
“Slim down the armor, still needs to block a certain level of kinetic force- but enough to reduce the power cost of moving the-” Byrna was sitting up now, staring off into space.  
  
Aiden watched her curiously; it was like watching two different people-her normal scatterbrained self and this hyper-focused intensity. Byrna nodded firmly to herself some minutes later before popping up off the lounge.  
  
“Let's go!” Byrna said excitedly, “I have so many ideas! This is great-”  
  
“Can’t,” Aiden said immediately, “We haven’t got access to the warehouse yet, and we're not setting anything up in my apartment.”  
  
Byrna opened her mouth, closed it, and then opened it again.  
  
“When the hell do we get the warehouse? Can’t you hurry it up? I want to work!” Byrna whined, “ _Aiden!_ ”  
  
Aiden could feel the little muscle in his eyelid tensing, _goddammit she was so annoying!  
  
_

* * *

 _  
  
Apartment, Boston, 4:53 PM.  
September 14th, 2010._  
  
“The terror twins have been rampaging cross country; this will be the third state where they’ve staged an assault,” Cat Grant said excitedly, “We just so happen to have a front-row seat to the action this time!”  
  
The camera swerved to the left, and _both_ Superman and Martian Manhunter floating serenely in the air above the bridge. A car was suddenly launched from the bridge towards them, followed barely a moment later by a second. Martian Manhunter simply faded through the projectile aimed at him, not bothering to move an inch. Superman just swatted his own out of the air without effort, sending it into the water below.  
  
Aiden took in their complete lack of tension; they clearly had it under control, give they were more or less at ease. He wondered why people even bothered trying to duke it out with the guy; he was clearly just using the minimum amount of force to accomplish the task.  
  
Then again, with the sheer strength that he must have had at his disposal, Aiden could feel that itch in the back of his mind once more. Fighting Diana had been an absolute pleasure, despite the fact that he’d gotten his ass painfully kicked all over the warehouse.  
  
He wondered what it would be like to fight the Man of Steel himself.  
  


* * *

  
  
 _Apartment, Boston, 4:01 PM.  
September 17th, 2010._  
  
Aiden took a bite out of his fifth snack of the day and once more glanced at his phone.  
  
Apart from a handful of times in the past, Dinah was usually pretty prompt when it came to keeping their appointment times. He wondered-three knocks, calm, and confident rang out; he’d tracked the Ki-signature all the way up the apartment buildings stairs. Still, he’d assumed that it was one of the tenants that had lived above or a ninja coming to kill him.  
  
Maybe he was a little paranoid.  
  
“I’ll get it!” Byrna gasped.  
  
“Do whatever you want,” Aiden mumbled.  
  
She been moping around everywhere since they’d arrived here; apparently, not having the warehouse ready and waiting for her to start working was grounds for sulking. Having someone to talk to that was more aware of him was nice, and it had given him someone to bounce ideas off of. The downside was that Byrna had to be the single most chattiest person he had ever met in his life, and once she started, it was almost impossible to keep her on track.  
  
On several occasions, he’d found himself dragged into conversations-arguments even, that he had absolutely _no stake_ in but routinely found himself trying to defend before he managed to realize she’d baited him once more. He’d died on more hills in the last week than he had in his entire life up until this point! It _was_ keeping him on his toes-not exactly a bad thing; he had been getting rusty after all.  
  
“Hi!” Byrna said excitedly, “Who are you?”  
  
A familiar voice that could only be Dinah spoke up from the door.  
  
“I’m looking for Aiden Neve?” Dinah said calmly. “We have an appointment.”  
  
They were coming to his house now?  
  
“Really?” Byrna said, surprised, “Are you the real estate-”  
  
“Dinah is my Justice League appointed therapist,” Aiden said quickly, loading the phrase to make sure she understood not to say anything incriminating. “I wasn’t aware we were doing in-person interviews now?”  
  
Byrna stepped back to allow her inside, watching the woman curiously. Dinah strode in with confidence looking completely at ease.  
  
“I had business in Boston today, so I thought we could do the interview in person,” Dinah said easily, “Unless you have a problem? I’d be willing to stand out in the hallway and call you-if you prefer.”  
  
Aiden considered asking her to do just that, it would be hilarious, but it would likely tip over the house of cards that was their carefully balanced communications. He didn’t want to completely alienate her or the Justice League, and it would likely get back to Diana at that point as well.  
  
He enjoyed that spar way too much for it to be the only one he ever got.  
  
“In-person is fine,” Aiden said finally, “I’d like to receive notice beforehand in the future though-I might not have been home at all.”  
  
“Perfect,” Dinah nodded before glancing at Byrna. “Are you happy to hold the discussion in the presence of your friend?”  
  
Byrna was giving him the pouty eyes, and he knew she would start badgering him about it as soon as Dinah was gone if he kicked her out for half an hour.  
  
Aiden sighed.  
  
“Yeah, she can stay, have a seat,” Aiden sighed, gesturing to the stools. “Byrna, Dinah, Dinah, Byrna.”  
  
“Hi!” Byrna chirped.  
  
“Hello again,” Dinah said bemused, before turning back to him. “How have you been, Aiden?”  
  
Byrna snorted, and he realized immediately that he had made a grievous mistake.  
  
“I’m fine,” Aiden said wryly, “Same as always, wounds are all healed-seems pretty fast given I had metal rods sticking out of me. At least this experimental body is good for something, you know?”  
  
There he’d covered most of the new information in a single sentence, but her expression didn’t really change. Aiden studied her face; she had obviously come in person this time because she wanted to get a better read on him than she could get on the phone. Which probably meant she was looking for something in particular.  
  
“That’s good; not all wounds can be healed quite so quickly, however,” Dinah said calmly, “You’ve been through a very traumatic incident; how are you dealing with what happened?”  
  
“You mean when ninjas blew up my apartment building in an attempt to assassinate me?” Aiden said dryly, “I’m watching every single person I pass in the street as if they might be waiting to pull a katana out of their trousers and shank me.”  
  
Aiden paused for a beat and then spoke up before she could ask anything deeper.  
  
“Or perhaps you meant when the ninjas blew up STAR Labs and stole my medical history?” Aiden said, archly, side-eyeing her.  
  
Dinah almost sighed.


	17. Chapter 17

STAR Labs, Boston, 12:03 PM.  
September 20th, 2010.  
  
The STAR Labs building design was apparently universal regardless of which city he was in, at least for the most part. There were some small changes, likely because of the different needs of each city, but still. Aiden couldn’t trust that the medical room was in the same location as Philadelphia, so he spent a few minutes talking to the receptionist before being sent off in the right direction.  
  
He knocked on the door curiously; there was a Ki signature inside one he hadn’t felt before.  
  
“Come in,” Emil said distractedly. “Aiden, it’s good to see you again; a shame what happened in our usual location.”  
  
The distracted nature wasn’t unusual given how the man always seemed to have his mind focused on some task or other, but it was a bit of an understatement given what had occurred. He gave the blonde woman a smile in greeting before answering.  
  
“Yes, well,” Aiden said dryly, not bothering with secrecy. “I hope they didn’t get that Ki masking device you made?”  
  
Emil turned to look at him over his shoulder for a moment before shaking his head.  
  
“Developed in my personal Lab offsite-” Emil said evenly, “My new personal assistant, Tea.”  
  
Tea gave her boss a smile before crossing her arms. “Hi.”  
  
“Nice to meet you,” Aiden said amicably before turning back to Emil.  
  
Aiden took his usual spot on the edge of the bed as Emil tapped away.  
  
“I was told you’d been injured quite badly,” Emil said frowning, before standing up and beginning his inspection.  
  
“I apparently heal a far deal quicker than a baseline human,” Aiden said thoughtfully, tugging up his pants leg to show his ankle, heavily scarred. “Still get scars, unfortunately.”  
  
“Indeed,” Emil said curiously, “Perhaps a downstream result of your massively increased metabolism.”  
  
“Possibly,” Aiden shrugged; he honestly had no idea.  
  
“How’d you get that?” Tea said with interest. “Looks like it was painful.”  
  
“Assassins blew me up,” Aiden shook his head amused, that was something he never thought he’d be saying out loud. “Several pieces of rebar managed to get in me.”  
  
“Nice.” Tea smirked.  
  
Aiden raised his eyebrow at her archly, strange woman.

* * *

  
STAR Labs, Boston, 02:03 PM.  
September 20th, 2010.  
  
The appointment had ended up lasting a fair bit longer than usual, in the interest of some more detailed medical scans. Aiden didn’t mind; while Emil was as distracted as always, Tea had provided ample conversation to keep him entertained.  
  
When he finally stepped outside of the building, someone was waiting for him.  
  
“Ah,” Aiden said awkwardly.  
  
Superboy wasn’t unaware of the atmosphere, and he adjusted his weight from one foot to the other.  
  
“You said to come to find you if I wanted to learn how to fly,” Conner said plainly.  
  
He meant next time the guy saw him in costume, not while he was unmasked. Either way, no use crying over spilled milk; he’d have to do some damage control first.  
  
“Alright, the golden rule: You do not discuss this with anyone,” Aiden said firmly, “You agree to that, and I’ll teach you how to fly-if anyone asks; you woke up one day suddenly able to fly-boy were you surprised.”  
  
Aiden raised an eyebrow at him archly, and Conner studied him for a long moment before nodding hesitantly.  
  
“Perfect,” Aiden said easily, clapping his hands. “Well, this might take a while, and I’ve only got about an hour before I have somewhere to be, so we will need to set up a schedule.”  
  
Conner nodded quickly, and Aiden scratched his cheek at the incredibly one-sided conversation.  
  
“Buddy, you need to talk more; all this silence is awkward,” Aiden said dryly.  
  
“Okay,” Conner said evenly.  
  
Aiden almost sighed and beckoned the guy to follow him.  
  


* * *

  
  
Outskirts, Boston, 02:20 PM.  
September 20th, 2010.  
  
“Every single living being has an internal energy source called Ki,” Aiden said clearly, and Conner listened quietly. “It’s a minuscule amount in most cases because nobody even knows it’s there; you can use it to do all sorts of things-provided you train it enough to have a useable amount.”  
  
Aiden concentrated some Ki above his palm. It solidified into a glowing yellow orb about the size of a tennis ball before he let it dissipate.  
  
“With me so far?” Aiden prompted.  
  
“Yes,” Conner said, frowning, “How do I train it?”  
  
“Repetition-in this case doing the same thing over and over again until you reach the point when it’s a simple task. Not exactly the detailed answer you were looking for. I know-So in order to build your Ki, the first thing you need to do is be able to feel it,” Aiden said easily, holding out his fist.  
  
Conner stared at it in confusion before slowly stretching his own out to press against it. Aiden summoned a handful of Ki up and pressed it into his fist.  
  
“Warmth,” Conner said quietly, brow scrunched up in concentration.  
  
Aiden nodded and slowly upped the amount until his hand was practically leaking Ki. It wafted up off his hand, growing more visible by the second. He started pushing it towards Conner’s fist, and soon the Ki had subsumed his hand in the same pale blue light.  
  
“How about now?” Aiden asked curiously.  
  
Conner was staring at his fist with wide eyes.  
  
“It feels more…vibrant? Energized, maybe?” Conner said unsurely.  
  
“Pay attention to the feeling, hold it in your mind,” Aiden instructed, “Don’t think about anything else.”  
  
Conner closed his eyes, and after a few long moments, Aiden slowly withdrew his Ki.  
  
“That feeling of warmth, of vibrancy,” Aiden said carefully, trying not to disturb his concentration. “You have a tiny spark of it within you-it will feel more solid, more familiar; look for it-the same way you direct your focus into moving your fingers, or your legs-I’ve forgotten the word for it.”  
  
“Proprioception,” Conner said in answer.  
  
Aiden nodded-that was probably it. It took almost ten minutes before Conner’s eyes shot open.  
  
“I found it,” Conner said, surprised. “It really is tiny.”  
  
He’d never wanted to dust off the old-that’s what she said more in his life, but he didn’t think the younger guy would appreciate it. Aiden decided a demonstration of what it looked like in practice was in order-having a visual goal to work towards would help him stay motivated.  
  
Aiden slowly started building his Ki up.  
  
“Latch onto it with your mind, and try to move it slightly-intent, and focus is your friend here,” Aiden said quietly, as the wind started to pick up. “Once you’re able to direct it, you are going to move it to your feet and expel it downwards; the more you use your Ki, the more it will grow, and once you finally have enough of it? Well, you’ll be joining Superman in the sky. How’s that sound?”  
  
Conner stared at him, floating just above the grass. He had an intensity about him that assured Aiden that he would see it through; the dark-haired boy clenched his fist tightly and nodded.  
  
“It’s exactly what I want,” Conner said quietly.  
  
Aiden smiled at the guy; if there was one thing in his old world that should be considered a genetic super power-it was being naturally driven, and Conner seemed like he had that in spades.  
  
“Fantastic,” Aiden nodded, “I’m not going to ditch you after one session-we can do several more-but I do have somewhere I need to be right now, so; You got a phone?” Aiden asked curiously.  
  
Conner hesitated and then shook his head.  
  
“Buy one,” Aiden instructed, found his pen in his jacket pocket, and a scrap of paper from his wallet to scribble his number down. “That’s my number; don’t give it to anyone else unless it’s really important or you need help. Call me when you've got some free time, and I’ll meet you here.”  
  
Conner took it carefully and put it in his jean pocket.  
  
“You need a ride back into town?” Aiden wondered.  
  
Conner shook his head.  
  
“I can run back; it won’t take that long,” Conner said simply. “Aiden-Thank you.”  
  
“Don’t worry about it, buddy,” Aiden said easily, “-Tell you what, if you ever feel like letting off some steam, I could use another sparring partner.”  
  
Conner blinked.  
  
“I’ve heard from Robin that you spar regularly with Wonder Woman,” Conner said curiously.  
  
“Yeah, but she kicks my ass every single time,” Aiden said wryly, “I want to win occasionally, you know? I need someone who’ll go easy on me.”  
  
“I’ll spar with you, but I won’t make it easy.” Conner snorted but nodded. “Next time then.”  
  
“Next time,” Aiden agreed, tossing him a wave and zipping off into the sky.  
  


* * *

  
  
Apartment, Boston, 3:03 PM.  
September 20th, 2010.  
  
When Aiden arrived back at his apartment, he stepped through the front door, and he was immediately greeted by the tortured voice of Byrna.  
  
“I’m bored, I’m bored, I’m bored,” Byrna whined, “Aiden, I’m bored-”  
  
The door swung shut behind him with a click, and he snorted at the stream of complaints.  
  
“Why didn’t you go outside then?” Aiden rolled his eyes, “Nobody’s forcing you to stay inside all day; go do something fun if you’re that bored.”  
  
Byrna just groaned, face stuffed into the cushions, and made no move to get up. She’d been in a slump since they’d arrived here; she was used to working on her projects whenever she was struck by the urge.  
  
“Ah, well, I guess I’ll go check out the new warehouse on my own then,” Aiden said wryly, “What a shame.”  
  
Byrna was up off the couch in half a second.  
  
“I’m coming too!” Byrna said excitedly, “Does the building have power yet? Can we go get my stuff out of storage?”  
  
“Yes, and yes,” Aiden nodded easily, “There's an ongoing project on one side of the place, so we need to stay away from that until it’s finished.”  
  
“That’s the gravity room you were talking about?” Byrna said curiously, “It still sounds pretty stupid to me. You’re just going to end up crushing yourself-people don’t work like that.”  
  
He hadn’t told her about the collar he’d been using to train, and she hadn’t seen him wearing it.  
  
“Well, I happen to know for a fact that I do work like that; because I’m amazing,” Aiden said breezily, holding the door open. “Maybe you should try not being so painfully human.”  
  
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Byrna scoffed, “There's nothing wrong with being human. You monkey.”  
  
Aiden flinched at the quip, suddenly hyperaware of the stupid tail wrapped around his hips.  
  
“Don’t call me that,” Aiden complained, glaring at her. “It’s not funny.”  
  
Byrna smirked.  
  


* * *

  
  
The trip to the warehouse didn’t take long; organizing the truck, on the other hand, delayed them by almost half an hour. Byrna’s previous one hadn’t made the journey with them, so they needed to rent one to get all of her things out of storage.  
  
The warehouse itself was surprisingly large given what he was paying for it; Emil had really come through for him there. The entire south side was walled off, with a pale white metal wall seemingly made up of a series of thick interlocking panels-a single intimidating door sat at the bottom.  
  
That would be the still in progress gravity room, which would be inaccessible for another two weeks minimum. Tracy was working offsite to finish the last parts needed for the job and get them delivered here. Then it would be a simple effort for her to spend a week here putting it together-Aiden would be here to do any heavy lifting.  
  
The other half of the warehouse was also walled off, but this time a regular wall was the divider. They’d spent the last hour ferrying all of Byrna’s equipment inside, and he’d played the role of pack mule to speed up arranging it all.  
  
“How long will it take for you to get it all ready?” Aiden asked curiously.  
  
Byrna had already forgotten he existed and was sticking out under a desk routing another cable.  
  
“Two hours?” Byrna said distractedly.  
  
“Well, if you don’t need me anymore, I’m going to get dinner,” Aiden said wistfully, stretching his arms above his head. “I am starving; what do you want this time?”  
  
“Butter chicken!” Byrna called immediately.  
  
He blinked down at where her legs were wiggling, sticking out under the desk.  
  
“Indian again? Don’t you ever try anything different?” Aiden asked, bemused, “You get the same thing every time.”  
  
Her toes curled up beneath her sandals as she stretched-reaching for something deep under the desk.  
  
“Butter chicken!” Byrna cried happily.  
  
Aiden just sighed.  
  


* * *

  
  
Apartment, Boston, 7:00 AM.  
September 21th, 2010.  
  
The second the clock struck seven, his ‘Business’ phone rang; his first thought was that it was Conner, ringing him barely a day after he’d given the guy his number-the impatience of youth. He was pleasantly mistaken, however, as it was a voice he had never heard before.  
  
“Hello?” The Unknown voice spoke.  
  
“Bubbles here, how can I help you?” Aiden said clearly.  
  
“Good morning; I apologize for calling so early; my name is Simon Ecks,” Simon said quietly.  
  
He’d never heard the name before.  
  
“Not a problem, Simon.” Aiden said easily, “Are you in need of protection?”  
  
“Yes, I think so.” Simon said worriedly, “I’m being followed, almost around the clock, by a person in a hood.”  
  
“You’re calling me, instead of a regular bodyguard or the police,” Aiden said evenly, “Is there a reason?”  
  
“I’ve never actually seen them in person-but I have numerous hidden camera’s set up, and one of them caught the person climbing up the side of my building,” Simon said, bewildered. “After what happened with Selena-.”  
  
“I understand, that’s fine,” Aiden said sympathetically, “I’d be happy to help, given you’re willing to pay.”  
  
“Yes,” Simon said quickly, “I’m quite well off, so I’m prepared to pay for a week of your service.”  
  
“Fantastic,” Aiden said pleasantly. “May I ask who referred you?”  
  
“I got in contact with Selena, I’ve met her several times before, and she gave me your number,” Simon explained. “I hope that’s okay?”  
  
“Certainly,” Aiden said easily. “Let's talk a bit about the specifics, shall we?  
  
Selena coming in strong for him; he’d have to send her flowers or something.  
  


* * *

  
  
Simon Ecks Laboratory, Gotham City, 9:00 PM.  
September 21th, 2010.  
  
Simon Ecks was a slender man with dark hair; he was polite and soft-spoken, albeit the nervous kind of quiet. Aiden wondered why anybody was following the guy in the first place? He hadn’t felt anyone with his Ki sense that seemed particularly out of place. He hadn’t been here for long, though, so maybe the guy wouldn’t turn out to be just paranoid.  
  
Simon's workplace was set up in much the same way as some of the ones he had seen at STAR Labs-not that Aiden had any idea about any of the stuff on the boards or the shelves.  
  
Was the guy even researching something in the first place? Or was he filling orders of chemicals or something? The chalkboards with all the symbols and impossible math pointed to the prior, but the sheer about of boxes filled with empty containers spoke volumes.  
  
“What are you actually researching?” Aiden asked politely, taking a guess.  
  
Simon twitched, possibly having forgotten he wasn’t alone.  
  
“I have been attempting to reinvent organic cloning,” Simon said hesitantly, taking his time. “In a sense.”  
  
Aiden blinked and gave the guy a strange look behind his mask. Was cloning something that was mainstream here? He knew that all the crazy stuff in DC eventually had some kind of clones involved, but he hadn’t realized that it was more widespread than that.  
  
“How long has cloning been possible?” Aiden asked, frowning.  
  
“Hm?” Simon said distractedly, “Several decades at least, although there's been some discovery of isolated or hidden places with much, much older equipment that apparently accomplished the same thing. There have even been documentaries about it.”  
  
Huh.  
  
“Do they clone organs and stuff for people that need replacements?” Aiden wondered.  
  
Back home, that would have been a massive wave; widespread, easily replaceable organs, grown in large quantities.  
  
“Yes, of course,” Simon said calmly; he was slowly growing more used to his presence. “It’s quite common-more, so in the last couple of years.”  
  
“Interesting,” Aiden said honestly, “You trying to reinvent it? How's that?”  
  
Simon gathered his thoughts for a moment before speaking.  
  
“I used the term pretty loosely-an attempt to uh, simplify it.” Simon admitted sheepishly, “I’m trying to create a simulacrum or a duplicate of myself-a twin if you will-connected by the mind.”  
  
Some kind of telepathic Siamese-twins? Simon seemed to realize the direction of his thoughts because he continued quickly.  
  
“I could, of course, clone a copy of myself with relative ease, there are even instances of both metagene-telepathy, and several ways to accomplish the task with technology-a pair of communication modules linked to one another-but they would still be separate entities,” Simon explained, “The purpose here is for the duplicate to be without consciousness-an extension of your mind-essentially doubling your mental and physical capabilities-controlled by a single mind.”  
  
Okay, that was some supervillain shit, Aiden thought immediately. Had he somehow stumbled upon another one of these crazies? Goddammit, Selena. He pulled his phone out and did a quick search for ‘Simon Ecks.’  
  
“That’s pretty interesting, Simon,” Aiden said carefully, still weirded out.  
  
It actually sounded a lot like the multiform technique he’d been working away at, in a vague sort of way.  
  
“Indeed,” Simon said pleased, before falling silent.  
  
The search was turning up nothing other than the fact that he was a well known scientist-respected even. There were even some articles about this very project publically available-okay maybe he was jumping the gun here.  
  
Simon was actually just a normal dude; God, this place was weird.


	18. Chapter 18

Simon Ecks Laboratory, Gotham City, 2:01 PM.  
September 22nd, 2010.  
  
The night had passed without anything of note, followed immediately by most of the next day. Aiden was starting to think that either this Simon guy was just paranoid as heck or that he’d been spotted on arrival and the stalker had thrown in the towel.  
  
It turned out to be neither.  
  
A Ki-signature was slowly working its way across the city towards him-one that by now, he was more than familiar with. Aiden didn’t even bother assuming that this wasn’t her final destination.  
  
“Simon, someone is approaching,” Aiden said calmly, “I’m going to go scare them off, stay inside, I’ll make sure nobody enters the building.”  
  
“Really?” Simon said nervously, “Yes, of course, I’ll be right here; thank you, bubbles.”  
  
Aiden just nodded to the man and stepped out of the room; he made his way to the building's staircase, taking his time. Simon apparently had a series of hidden cameras, so this might be a bit more tricky-actually; he had an idea. The signature was still two streets away, but the approach was direct; he crouched on the roof of the building, eyes locked on the opposite roof, tensed and ready.  
  
The signature crested the roof, and Aiden locked eyes with Enkidu, whose own eyes went wide, as he flashed across the road, separating them and snatched her by the face-or at least tried to. Enkidu fell backward, planted a hand, and spun, kicking his reaching hand up into the air.  
  
The hit connected with a significant amount of strength, more than he would have assumed she was capable of even after seeing what she could do. He darted forward with a burst of ki, and once again, she slipped away, somehow moving before he had even gotten within three feet of her.  
  
Neither of them said anything.  
  
Aiden didn’t want to reveal that he had a connection to her because of the hidden camera’s and Simon would find that suspicious as fuck-the person who he had hired to bodyguard him was actually in League with the stalker?  
  
Yeah no.  
  
Enkidu kept her own silence, for reasons he wasn’t aware of, but he was glad for it none-the-less; her clothing was different than the last time he’d seen her as well; she looked nothing like the hero ‘Enkidu’ right now. A dark flared hood, a thin and expensive looking black bodysuit that covered her from head to toe.  
  
Aiden leaned forward and then immediately ducked to the side as her foot swiped through the air-she’d stepped forward the very second he had moved. He frowned beneath his own mask and jaunted forward after the kick had passed, just in time for the second kick in her apparent chain to turn his face to the side with a snap.  
  
Goddammit, this was just as bad as sparring with Diana; Fine, if he couldn’t contend with her in skill, he was going to have to overwhelm her. Aiden let his Ki surge through him, bringing it as high as he could, and then stepped forward.  
  
Enkidu’s punch landed against his cheek, barely turning it this time; he swiped at her arm and missed, and she spun under it; he kept walking forward as her second counter landed, an upwards heel strike to his chin. He forced his head down and sent a burst of ki behind him, propelling him suddenly within range of her, and he managed to get her into a clinch.  
  
He felt a series of attacks land on him in rapid succession, too light to make it through his durability, and he hugged her close to him before flashing forward into the sky at his maximum speed. He flinched as her knee caught him in the groin, and the straight flight turned into a spinning tumble as she slipped his grip just as they reached the edge of the city.  
  
Her leg hooked over his shoulder and around his neck before she threw herself downwards into an arc, dragging him further off course as he lost control, and barely a moment later, the two of them crashed into the ground, skating across the surface fast enough to crack two trees on collision.  
  
Aiden, still unharmed, got back to his feet and started towards her; he lost sight of her immediately as she stepped behind a tree and went straight up. If he hadn’t been tracking her with his Ki-sense, he would have been chasing shadows here, as it was when she came in from the side, low to the ground and out of his sight-he spun at the last moment and reached for her once more.  
  
Frustratingly enough, she slipped it again, and he was starting to realize that something else was going on here-even Diana didn’t start moving until he actually did something-and she had the benefit of still being faster than him. Enkidu wasn’t quite on his level physically, at least if this was her max, but she was handling him like she was significantly faster than she appeared.  
  
It was pissing him off.  
  
“Enkidu.” Aiden forced himself to say, coming to a stop.  
  
She immediately stopped cold.  
  
“How did you know it was me, Aiden?” Enkidu said quietly, watching him. “Why attack at all?”  
  
He wasn’t going to tell her how he knew, so instead, he took a deep breath, letting it out slowly, and he felt himself slowing growing calmer as he overcame the need to just keep throwing himself against her in combat.  
  
“Look, we have a conflict of interest going on here,” Aiden said with forced calm. “I’m currently employed as Simon Ecks bodyguard-what is your purpose there.”  
  
Enkidu slowly straightened up out of her ready position and reached up, drawing her hood back; she reached behind her head and unclipped something before dragging the bodysuits mask off and revealing her face for the first time since he had met her.  
  
Blond hair cut short, in some kind of pixie cut, and light grey eyes.  
  
“I’m investigating him, that’s all I can say,” Enkidu said quietly. “I don’t want to fight you.”  
  
Aiden studied her for a long moment-revealing her appearance like this was a calculated move, not something a person would normally do right after a savage fight. It was her attempt to keep him on her side-he still was; he had every intention of figuring out her situation.  
  
There was an opportunity here to put some more pressure on; he reached up and unclipped his own mask before revealing his own face.  
  
“You’ve known my name for a while now, and my face,” Aiden said firmly. “Who are you?”  
  
There was a moment where he thought he hadn’t put enough aggression into his voice-but his attempt to feign how tenuous the situation was seemed to work.  
  
“Sarah King,” Sarah said quietly.  
  
Aiden nodded to himself, success-now he had an actual name to start investigating.  
  
“Sarah, I don’t care what you do after I get paid,” Aiden admitted seriously, “But I can’t let you near the guy for the duration of my job.”  
  
“How long?” Sarah nodded slowly, gripping her shoulder with one hand; she looked uncomfortable.  
  
“A week,” Aiden said firmly.  
  
“Oh,” Sarah blinked, surprised, “I’ll go back to Boston and wait then.”  
  
The tension broke with an inaudible snap, and he almost sighed at how easily the crisis had been avoided with a few minutes of conversation; if Simon hadn’t had the camera’s set up, he could have handled this without fighting in the first place-then again, he wouldn’t have gotten her name as easily, so maybe this was for the best.  
  
He wouldn’t admit it out loud, but the fight had been exhilarating.  
  
“You’re much, much stronger than I thought,” Aiden said curiously. “What are your powers anyway?”  
  
Sarah scratched the back of her short hair sheepishly but didn’t respond, too close to the ‘control?’  
  
“Doesn’t matter; I’m still on the job,” Aiden said easily, before pausing. “Sarah King, I’m looking into things-I’ll try not to keep you waiting for too long, alright? Stay safe.”  
  
He lifted slowly off the ground as he clipped his mask back on.  
  
“I’ll do my best to be patient,” Sarah said quietly, “Aiden Neve.”

* * *

  
Gotham City, 5:01 PM.  
September 26th, 2010.  
  
The wind cut past his face as he left the city.  
  
Aiden finished the task without any more issues. Enkidu hadn’t reappeared at any point, and no one else was discovered looking around the place. Simon was pleased and even tipped him for fighting off the ‘stalker.’  
  
He felt a little bad that Enkidu was going to go straight back to stalking the guy afterward, but if you had a hero investigating you-well, maybe his instincts were right, and Simon was one of those evil scientist dudes. It might have been a little cold-blooded, but he had been paid to keep the guy safe for a week, not to care about the guy, so he wasn’t too concerned.  
  
Speaking of weeks, it had been almost a full one since he’d seen Byrna-her workspace was likely fully set up by now, which meant he could finally put in a requisition for a proper mask; that would be one less thing for him to worry about.  
  
If she could spare the time away from redesigning her own equipment anyway.  
  
He was extraordinarily lucky his current mask hadn’t broken too badly during the fight, doubly so that he’d had the balaclava tucked away.  
  
He’d missed his last appointment with Dinah as well, so he was already dreading the verbal ass-kicking he was going to get; he’d forgotten they had agreed to make the next few visits in person-heck he even had three missed calls on his phone.  
  
Aiden had thought about ringing and apologizing for all of ten seconds before deciding he would just double down on the whole ‘too busy working’ thing; it was an argument winner if nothing else.  
  
As if it knew he was thinking about it, his phone starting ringing a number he didn’t recognize again; he had to slow down as he put it up to his ear to actually hear anything over the wind.  
  
“How can I help you?” Aiden said easily.  
  
“Aiden?” Conner’s voice said shortly. “It’s Conner.”  
  
“Hey buddy,” Aiden said, gliding slowly. “Good to see you got a phone; what's up?”  
  
“A lot has happened in the last week-“ Conner managed, sounding annoyed, “I want to-can you check my progress? I want to fight too.”  
  
Sounded like he needed to let off some steam.  
  
“Rough week, huh?” Aiden said easily, “A fight and some training sounds good; where are you now?”  
  
“Happy Harbor,” Conner said simply, after a long moment.  
  
Aiden frowned, the name sounded familiar, but he wasn’t sure where it was on a map. He’d have to look it up on his phone.  
  
“Alright, I’ll come to you; meet me outside of wherever the heck that is,” Aiden said, bemused. “Peace.”  
  
“Alright,” Conner said before hanging up.  
  
“Damn, kid,” Aiden said, annoyed, “At least say goodbye first.”  
  


* * *

  
Aiden recognized the city on sight as the one where most of the series took place and almost smacked himself in the face at having forgotten the name. It turned out that Happy Harbor was actually not too far from Boston, which made him both suspicious and curious. He’d been the one to choose Boston to live in, but it may have been a sneaky Batman ruse somehow to keep him within range of their teleporter thingies in case they needed to come to kick his ass.  
  
He flew around for a few moments before he caught a signature far out of the city and made his way towards it.  
  
“Aiden,” Conner said shortly.  
  
He was definitely pissed off, interesting, an argument with his superhero buddies? There had been a few of those blow-outs in the show; he couldn’t remember any of the details, though.  
  
“Alright, you look like you need to vent-so let's do that spar first,” Aiden said pleasantly and rolled his shoulders. “Rules; Have some fun and no sulking afterward-got it?”  
  
“Yeah,” Conner said firmly.  
  
Aiden dashed forwards without warning and launched a punch straight down the middle. Conner crossed his arms in a block, and the hit landed with a crack, sending him sliding back across the grass, twin trenches carved out of the ground beneath his feet.  
  
Conner leaped forward, clearing the distance between them, and launched his own hit. Aiden copied the younger guy's block and was sent flipping backward before he managed to catch himself.  
  
He started laughing, and Conner frowned.  
  
“I didn’t think you’d be stronger than me; honestly, I think I might be a bit faster, though,” Aiden said, grinning, “This is fun.”  
  
Conner smirked, the first sign of levity since he had arrived.  
  
Aiden went back on the offensive, sending a series of jabs and punches-Conner mostly managed to block them all, taking absolutely no damage from anything that did slip by-fucking Kryptonians. On the other hand, Aiden knew he was going to be covered in bruises later; even with his ki surging up as high as he could go, the guy's punches hurt.  
  
Conner had a bizarre fighting style; he seemed to prefer single overwhelming strikes more than anything, putting all his power into it and then leaping back within range. Aiden knew that if the kid ever sparred with Diana, he would probably get his ass kicked even worse than he had.  
  
The strikes were telegraphed for all the world to see-not that it stopped them from landing; the speed difference wasn’t that big after all.  
  
“You look like you’re having fun now!” Aiden laughed in between exchanges.  
  
Conner didn’t reply, but he did have an expression that might have one day grown up to be a smile.  
  


* * *

  
Aiden’s Warehouse, Boston, 12:01 PM.  
September 30th, 2010.  
  
Aiden had spent his free time in the last few days looking into ‘Sarah King.’  
  
He’d found more than he would have initially thought, given the type of people he thought he was dealing with. Sarah King, a girl from Central City, went missing years ago. Her family had vanished along with her, all except for the grandmother.  
  
The grandmother, according to the articles written about the case, had been strangely unbothered by the disappearance of her entire living family, and the police had investigated her thoroughly on the assumption that she’d had something to do with it.  
  
They’d found a substantial amount of money in one of her accounts, and she’d offered no explanation as to where it had come from. The funds had been traced back to a known trafficking ring-revealing that the grandmother had somehow managed to sell her entire family off for fifteen million dollars-a ridiculous amount.  
  
“What the fuck?” Aiden muttered to himself, “This place is fucking insane, her own grandmother? Shit.”  
  
The buyer hadn’t been located, and the family hadn’t reappeared; the reason for the stupidly high price wasn’t ever discovered. Whatever was special about them was never found, the case had gone cold, and soon the world had forgotten all about Sarah King.  
  
So, she’d been sold into slavery, had some kind of control forced on her, and turned into some kind of superhuman operative or something for an organization that worked with the League of Shadows.  
  
He was starting to understand the full picture here, but it didn’t help him determine who had been responsible for it in the first place, which meant he still didn’t have a target.  
  
Who was the person behind Enkidu?  
  
He’d considered going to Batman or Diana and putting them on the case, but he had plenty of experience with how they treated powered individuals they were wary of. He’d try to figure out the person's identity first; if he failed, he would just have to suck it up and ask for help.  
  


* * *

  
Aiden’s Apartment, Boston, 12:15 PM.  
October 1st, 2010.  
  
Aiden picked up his phone and checked the message-Enkidu, apparently still here in Boston warning him about-  
  
“The fucking giant plants!” Aiden said incredulously, “How did I forget the god damned plant attack?”  
  
Aiden dragged his costume on before dialing another number.  
  
“Byrna, giant plants attacking half of America, you want to come to test out your new stuff?” Aiden said quickly, “Yeah? I’ll meet you at the warehouse in five minutes, be ready.”  
  
He sent off another message to Enkidu and got an affirmative response barely a second later.  
  
Aiden couldn’t remember how many plants attacked, but there had been at least one in each of the League’s home cities or something like that. He didn’t remember any of them attacking Boston, but then again, he couldn’t trust his memory of the series anyway; he hadn’t even remembered the plants in the first place.  
  
Who’d been behind this? This had been the red herring that hid the real villain antagonists-Poison Ivy, Black Adam? The Joker had been there too! Some magic guy as well? It didn’t really matter; either way, he had no idea where that battle even took place-so he had no chance of participating in that one.  
  
The heroes had solved that without too much trouble anyway, so he wouldn’t need to intervene there-he could focus on killing these damn plants, and judging by the increasing amount of noise he could hear in the distance, the attack had begun in earnest.


	19. Chapter 19

_Downtown, Boston, 12:23 PM.  
October 1st, 2010._  
  
Almost as soon as Aiden made it outside, he realized just how good the building’s soundproofing was; this attack was fucking _loud._ The plant-thing, which he could clearly see from halfway across the city, was also the single largest moving creature he had ever seen in his life.  
  
It was sending chills down his spine, something that large twisting and coiling like it was-so he did his best not to look directly at it as he made his way towards the meeting place. He could already feel Enkidu’s Ki-signature standing on the building in question while Byrna’s own was about two blocks away and moving surprisingly quickly.  
  
She’d put the idea of the ice-skating on hold in favor of the much easier to implement motorized wheels in the redesigned boots. Aiden had got a laugh or two out of watching her zoom around the warehouse as she made adjustments yesterday.  
  
Aiden dropped down onto the roof next to Enkidu, just as Byrna made the jump from the building opposite them before she skidded to a stop.  
  
“Giant plants,” Aiden said in greeting, nodding at them both. “Yikes.”  
  
“How the heck do we kill it?” Byrna asked nervously. “I don’t have anywhere near enough energy to ice even a quarter of the thing.”  
  
Byrna had left the unfinished torso piece behind, instead only wearing the now thin legs and gauntlets, along with a welders mask. They were silver-blue in color, sleek, and looked almost nothing like the woman’s previous costume.  
  
“It’s moving, so it must have a nervous system of some kind or a skeletal equivalent,” Enkidu said seriously, “We need to separate as many of its-uh-limbs from the main body.”  
  
“So cut it into pieces, basically?” Aiden clarified, watching as the massive plant latched on to everything around it with its thick tendrils.  
  
“Yes, then destroy the main body,” Enkidu confirmed.  
  
Aiden cracked his neck and stared at the thing that was making his skin crawl; he could feel that itch rising slowly as he focused his anger and annoyance at the thing.  
  
“Got it; play it safe, hit, and run tactics; I don’t want to win the fight at the cost of one of you, understand?” Aiden insisted, “I’m going in.”  
  
“Shouldn’t you be playing it safe too!” Byrna called after him incredulously.  
  
He was already too far away to respond, and his focus was entirely on the plant now. The closer he got to it, the greater it seemed to grow; he wondered if he could have ever brought himself to approach such a thing in his old world.  
  
Aiden had never been easily intimidated, but this was something else. Since he’d arrived here, things had been different somehow; he’d heard the sound of a gun in an alley and walked straight in-he hadn’t known until _afterward_ that he was bulletproof.  
  
He’d been calm then-or more accurately, completely unafraid despite having not been able to confirm his durability.  
  
The same thing had happened after the assassin’s had attacked him, although that time he’d been more worried about Selena. When they had set off the explosion and deleted his apartment, he’d been angry, but he’d felt no fear at his injuries.  
  
Aiden had broken his leg once, a long time ago, and there had been a pervasive undercurrent of fear at first, fear that he’d ruined himself-fear that he’d never be able to walk again, and fear that the worst-case scenario where they would have to take the leg. It hadn’t been rational; he knew that _now_ -but at the time, he’d had little to no idea about that kind of thing.  
  
He’d felt nothing like it after the explosion, he’d had metal sticking out of him, and he’d been far more injured than he’d ever been before-but there had been not a single moment of fear. Something had changed in his response to an emotional stimulus, and he wasn’t sure if it was a good thing or not.  
  
Whatever it was, it was the only reason he could even bring himself to approach this disgusting thing. Aiden slammed into the massive tendril that flashed through the air towards him with all the force he could muster; barely a second later, he burst out the other side with a shower of plant matter and sap.  
  
It made no motion to indicated it had even felt the attack or the loss of its own limb-but it did strike out at him with more of the tendrils. Aiden swayed around it before kicking down at the plant, destroying enough matter with the impact for it to be severed.  
  
It fell to the ground with a heavy thud, and his eyes caught a blue stream of light slashing across the bottom-most tendril, leaving a line of ice behind. The tendril swung at Byrna, who had already slide past it, and shattered on impact, sending the top half of it careening through the air.  
  
Aiden flashed over to it and kicked it down to the ground before it could impact the glass windows of a nearby building. He turned back just in time to catch Enkidu diving straight off one of the surrounding buildings, roll forward into a summersault and sever another tentacle with a picture-perfect heel drop.  
  
The plant was starting to writhe, and the hundreds of tendrils wrapped around its base were starting to unfold, reaching out into the air. Two of the larger ones snaked around the base of two buildings and squeezed.  
  
Aiden tore through the thick tendril on the left a moment too late, and the building disintegrated as it impacted the ground, sending dust and debris everywhere. The second building survived as both Byrna and Enkidu managed to sever it in time, a combination of another ice beam and concussive force.  
  
Aiden gritted his teeth as visibility was reduced to almost nothing, and barely a second later, one of the thinner tendrils snagged him by the leg. He ripped his leg out of its grasp within a second, but it had managed to hold him still long enough for the much thicker tendril to send him straight down towards the street below.  
  
The impact was enough to leave him stunned for a moment, and by the time he got his bearings, he was three meters deep in the ground.  
  
“Oh shit-,” Aiden swore as a twisted mass of tendrils smashed down on top of him.  
  
He lifted his left hand and tried to stop its momentum with pure strength and failed, being sent even deeper into the ground as it shattered around him. A single tendril stabbed down past the now rising mass and buried his face deeper into the rubble. It kept him pinned just long enough for the twisted mass to get another swing prepped.  
  
Aiden couldn’t believe he was being beaten by a fucking plant; He stuck his hand out, past the tendril that was still holding him down by his face, fingers splayed. He pushed as much Ki as he could gather into his palm and sent the yellow wash of unformed energy rocketing upwards.  
  
It was the first time he’d ever tried using Ki in an offensive energy attack, and it surged upwards like a flash of diffused light.  
  
The plant burned away as the blast tore through the twisted limb, through the top half of the main body, and kept on going. Aiden could feel his Ki rapidly diminishing the longer he held the attack and dropped it before he could deplete below half of his reserves. The hole he’d been buried in was now a smooth tunnel upwards at an angle, the tendril holding his face had evaporated, and the top half of the plant’s main body was simply gone along with a massive circle of the skyscraper behind it.  
  
Aiden was really, really glad that nobody had been in that building.  
  
“Holy shit.” Aiden coughed, wiping the blood out of his eyes.  
  
His palm was burning, and when he checked, it was red raw, badly burned from a failure to control his attack. There was a sharp pain in his left arm, and the fingers on his left hand were definitely broken.  
  
The thing he was most upset about was that his brand new suit was absolutely fucked; both his sleeves were burned away, the front of his jacket and dress shirt were mostly missing-barely holding on by the shoulders and tie. His temporary mask, a black metal oval painted white, was singed black but otherwise unharmed.  
  
Aiden dragged himself up out of the tunnel, floating upwards until he cleared the opening and got a full view of his surroundings. White lines of ice crisscrossed the plant’s main body, and massive chunks were missing all over it, from Byrna and Enkidu, respectively.  
  
Despite missing almost half of its total mass, the plant was still attacking.  
  
Byrna’s Ki-Signature was retreating from the plant, seemingly trying to circle around to where he was. Enkidu was almost directly opposite him, on the other side, jaunting left and right around the attacking limbs with seeming ease.  
  
Was it the Joker who was controlling this thing or Poison Ivy? Aiden couldn’t remember, but fuck whoever it was-they were absolutely dunking on him.  
  
“Aiden!” Byrna shouted as she zipped underneath one of the reaching tendrils and spun, sliding to a stop as the wheels in her boots locked up, sending sparks scattering everywhere. “Holy crap, I thought you were dead-you look almost dead actually, not going to lie.”  
  
Aiden wiped the blood out of his eye again as it dripped down from his hair.  
  
“Thanks,” Aiden grunted, studying the plant. “I’m going to try and get it into the air.”  
  
“Are you going to hit it with that light again?” Byrna asked quickly, “What the hell was that? I felt the heat from over there!”  
  
Byrna pointed over to where she had come from.  
  
“Energy attack,” Aiden mumbled, “Byrna, cover me for a minute; I’m going to lift it up.”  
  
“Got it!” Byrna said excitedly.  
  
Aiden took a couple of stumbling steps forward before giving up on that entirely and just lifting off the ground. He waited until most of the limbs had been sent out after Enkidu and then poured on the speed, slamming into where the bottom of the creature touched the road with a crack. The plant skidded forward, and he ended up buried meters inside the disgusting thing. A thin tendril immediately followed him in, only to fall to the ground, cut in half by a line of ice.  
  
He jammed his hands upwards, as deep as he could get them, and then surged up as best he could immediately he sunk further into it before the plant’s tissue finally held up against the force, and with a grunt of effort, he forced the entire thing off the ground.  
  
Once it had lost its grip on the buildings, it became easier to lift until finally, he was high enough that nothing was going to be destroyed as collateral.  
  
Aiden starting forcing as much of his remaining energy into his hands as he could; once it reached almost all of what he had left, he expelled it in the same reckless way he had earlier, and once again, the energy simple escaped as a wave of flashing light and heat.  
  
The skin on his hands burned, and he let out a scream of pain as the plant withered, burned, and disintegrated around him. He held it for as long as he could, and once the plant had finally been rendered down to ash, he let the attack fail.  
  
Aiden panted in the air, unable to focus on anything other than the white-hot pain overtaking him; he failed to hold onto his flight and started to fall. He barely had the presence of mind to use the last of his Ki to protect himself, and he hit the roof of a building with a crack.  
  
“Fuck.” Aiden said quietly, staring up at the empty sky, unwilling to move.  
  


* * *

  
 _Hospital, Boston, 12:23 PM.  
October 2nd, 2010._  
  
“The heroes of the hour, Enkidu, Snowflake, and Bubbles, have managed to vanquish the massive plant that attacked Boston, one of many attacks around the world. Although much of Boston CBD was destroyed, it could have been much, much worse had they not acted when they did.”  
  
“Free publicity, baby,” Aiden said, smirking.  
  
The injustice league had been dealt with, thanks to Conner and his team, along with assistance from the Justice League. The plants had all been defeated, and the situation had come to a close.  
  
“It’s not really free if you’re half dead when you get it,” Byrna said curiously.  
  
Hmm, she was onto something there.  
  
“Paying with my body is better than hurting my wallet,” Aiden said lamely before wincing at the phrasing.  
  
“Paying with your body, huh?” Byrna smirked. “I thought you were a bodyguard, not an escort.”  
  
“Hilarious,” Aiden mumbled before pouting. “How long do I have to stay here, anyway? This sucks.”  
  
“Maybe next time you should try not setting yourself on fire.” Byrna laughed, “I’ll go find a nurse, don’t go anywhere, okay?”  
  
Aiden sighed at the teasing remark.  
  
It had been an international event, a lot of people had been hurt during the attack, and hundreds of millions of dollars of damage was done to the cities infrastructure. There was a mental discrepancy between events that seemed like they weren’t very important in a cartoon and the effect they actually had on society when transferred into a real, living world.  
  
Once again, he cursed the fact that he hadn’t paid more attention to the show; he should have remembered this plant nonsense; it hadn’t been a more than an episode or two, he thought, but it wasn’t the small event that his faded memory had tricked him into believing.  
  
It got him thinking about all the things he did remember-like that magical-horror kid who split the world into two sections or something. When had that happened? He would have noticed it had occurred already, so that was likely looming in the future somewhere.  
  
That had been solved by the heroes though, he shouldn’t need to get involved in that-No. This was exactly what he’d just been thinking, small things from the cartoon that, when transferred to real-life, had a substantial effect.  
  
People had most likely died during that attack; any adult that was driving with children in the car would have disappeared, leaving the car to crash. Plane pilots had vanished, police officers, and what if someone had been performing surgery or something?  
  
There wasn’t a real solution to that one either; it’s not like he knew where the ritual was taking place; he couldn’t even remember the kid’s _name._ Could he send someone a message about it? Tell Dinah during his next appointment that he’d heard a rumor about some crazy evil magic kid was going to split the world in two?  
  
No, he missed his appointment again; that was yesterday during the clusterfuck that was the plant attack. Then again, she hadn’t called him or appeared either, no doubt working with the other heroes in an attempt to stop it.  
  
There was the invasion of aliens as well that killed all of the Justice League. Aiden frowned; they’d been back afterward somehow-no wait, that had been some kind of telepathic scenario gone wrong, that hadn’t _actually_ happened.  
  
There was some dude with a magical sword? Even straining himself, he couldn’t recall much else of note, surely there had been other things of importance. Something about a desert and a mind reader? Oh! That would be that Bilayan stuff that was all over the news.  
  
Aiden was pretty sure it didn’t have any backlash over here, though.  
  
He still couldn’t remember what the shadowy group actually did in the show; there were a lot of scenes where they complained about their plans being foiled by the team of mini-leaguers, but what had they actually done? Kid flash had fought one of them, hadn’t he? While delivering a heart-to _Boston_ -or from Boston, actually, he couldn’t remember other than it had been snowing?  
  
He could hear voices outside the door, so he put it out of his mind for the moment.  
  


* * *

  
 _Hospital, Boston, 4:30 PM.  
October 2nd, 2010._  
  
“Conner, good work stopping the bad guys,” Aiden said calmly when the boy had picked up.  
  
“Aiden?” Conner said curiously. “Why are you calling now?”  
  
“A very important reason, which I’m going to need your help with,” Aiden said evenly, “Hear me out?”  
  
“Okay,” Conner said simply.  
  
“I have just received some very sensitive information,” Aiden said seriously, “I know with one-hundred-percent certainty that it is going to happen, although I’m not sure when exactly it happens, the next couple of months most likely.”  
  
Conner remained completely silent on the other side of the phone, so he continued.  
  
“Okay, there’s an evil magical horror kid,” Aiden winced at his own terrible description, “He has something to do with chaos or something; he knows a magical helmet guy.”  
  
Aiden was starting to cringe as his terrible explanation grew worse by the second.  
  
“Doctor Fate?” Conner said firmly.  
  
Aiden blinked-had that stuff already happened then? That meant that the original helmet guy- _Doctor Fate_ -guy was dead then.  
  
“Oh, thank god, you know who I’m talking about then?” Aiden said, relieved. “What’s the evil kid’s name?”  
  
“Klarion,” Conner said easily.  
  
“Yes! That guy, Klarion,” Aiden said, pleased, “Klarion plans on recruiting a bunch of crazy magic guys, and then cast this stupid spell that will split all the adults into one world, and all of the children into another-it will result in a huge amount of deaths, so I need you to pass the information onto Batman, or maybe Wonder Woman.”  
  
“I can do that,” Conner said hesitantly, “How do you know this?”  
  
“Sorry,” Aiden said apologetically, “I’m unable to reveal that; I wish I could tell you, though.”  
  
There was a beat of silence.  
  
“I managed to lift off the ground today,” Conner admitted, out of nowhere. “It was only for a fraction a second before I ran out of energy.”  
  
“Congratulations,” Aiden said honestly, “You’re a fast learner, or you’re practicing a lot; both are things to be proud of-it doesn’t matter which honestly. How did it feel?”  
  
There was another pause before he responded.  
  
“It felt good,” Conner admitted. “I’ll make sure to keep practicing; thank you for the information.”  
  
“No worries,” Aiden smiled, “See you next time.”  
  
Aiden scrunched his face up as Conner once again hung up on him without saying goodbye.  
  
“Come _on,_ man,” Aiden sighed, annoyed. “Have some basic human decency, uh wait, _Kryptonian_ decency? No! _Half_ -human- _half_ -Kryptonian-Fuck! What if it’s half- _genomorph_ -”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Authors Notes:  
> Just realized we crossed the 50k threshold a chapter or so ago. Yay.
> 
> Update:  
> The first chapter of Just Deserts (MHA, OC) is up now.
> 
> Lame ass calls to action:  
> If you want to help me spend all of my time writing, or simply want to show some support for Reroll, check out my Patreon. If you feel like it, you could drop by and leave a comment, or review-whatever you feel like on any of the sites I post stuff on! Every bit helps. Peace!


	20. Chapter 20

Aiden’s Apartment, Boston, 12:02 PM.  
October 7th, 2010.  
  
“Busy week, huh?” Aiden said, amused, stepping out of the way of the door. “You look like death warmed over; what happened-got into a fight with a blender?”  
  
Dinah Lance stepped inside at his unspoken invitation, looking tired and with noticeable cuts on her forearms and neck.  
  
“I did some gardening this week. I guess I should have worn thicker gloves, but you’re not looking much better if we’re honest,” Dinah said wryly. “You can take quite the beating, going by the footage I’ve seen, but I’m still surprised you’re up and walking around, bandages or not.”  
  
Well, she wasn’t wrong; his arms were completely wrapped in bandages, his left arm was in a hard cast to keep him from moving it too much. He was also ‘sunburned’ to a massive degree, although much less so than the original burns he’d had after his prototype burning attack. He’d seen the shaky-cam footage of his ass getting kicked, and goddammit, he’d gone from looking awesome to pancake in about ten seconds flat.  
  
Whoever had taken that video deserved a boot to the ass.  
  
“Well, I have no idea what you’re refereeing to by ‘footage,’” Aiden said easily, directing her to take a seat at the counter. “I fell asleep in a tanning bed, panicked when I woke up before I fell out and broke my hand-happens to everyone honestly.”  
  
Dinah laughed at the absurd excuse that neither of them believed, but he was intent on keeping up the facade.  
  
“Uhuh.” Dinah hummed, “Well, thank you for dealing with the threat of the tanning-bed; there would have been a lot more damage if you hadn’t been there.”  
  
Aiden just nodded but didn’t make any other motion of confirmation.  
  
“Well, I’m glad you didn’t come here to scream at me; that would have been awkward,” Aiden said, amused. “I might have even cried.”  
  
He got a deadpanned look for the terrible joke, but he couldn’t help but grin.  
  
“Hilarious,” Dinah said dryly, “I see you’re friend isn’t here today; perhaps we should get our meeting started then; How are you doing, Aiden?”  
  
Well, she hadn’t brought up a single thing about Klarion or Fate, so his trust in Conner seemed to be well placed.  
  
The small talk had been fun while it lasted; time for business.  
  


* * *

  
Aiden’s Apartment, Boston, 6:33 PM.  
October 9th, 2010.  
  
He hadn’t heard from Enkidu since the plant fiasco had ended, so it was a surprise when he suddenly received a text message from her.  
“Tomorrow,” Aiden said quietly, reading the latest message.  
  
  
  
He wasn’t stupid; she was obviously trying to tell him something. Each line was completely unhinged, or rather disconnected from the others; it was almost like she had been talking to somebody else entirely. He certainly didn’t smoke, and there was no reason why she would think he did, so it was a carefully chosen word.  
  
The subjects of each line were pretty clear; Red, Windy, Burned, Drowning, Blow My Top, Smoking, and she used Tomorrow twice.  
  
The first thing he thought of was Red Tornado, but hadn’t that stuff already happened? And why would Enkidu know anything about that anyway? Burned and Drowning most likely referred to those other robots that had attacked the mountain at some point? So what were the other lines referring to? Smoking and blow my top sounded almost like a-  
  
Wait a fucking minute.  
  
There was another one of those robots that appeared at some point, the god damned earth-bending volcano dude; He’d forgotten about him entirely and assumed all of that arc had already happened after that twister dude had shown up and gotten destroyed by Conner and friends.  
  
Aiden hadn’t heard anything about a volcano erupting, which meant that it actually hadn’t happened yet. So somehow, Enkidu knew that the Red Robo-gang was going to attack tomorrow? In an attempt to wipe the world out with that supervolcano or something!  
  
Aiden gritted his teeth and tried to focus.  
  
Mister twister, that had been the wind robot from the start of the series, with the fake machine-man inside that Miss Martian had squished. Red Tornado was the hero that worked in the Justice League and looked after the mountain in Happy Harbor or something.  
  
Red…Flamer? Red Fire-Red Inferno! Was that the fire robot that had the woman’s voice? The other one used water to attack, right? Red Tsunami or something water-related?  
  
Those two had attacked the younger team of heroes and were eventually defeated..in the mountain?  
  
They were helping the volcano android or destroy the world or something? Who had they all be working for again, or rather who had built them? It was some guy with a white suit, whose name completely escaped him, he made all the robots with the help of that guy that piloted Mister Twister?  
  
He ended up getting killed somewhere along the way or something.  
  
Fuck.  
  


* * *

  
Aiden’s Apartment, Boston, 9:42 PM.  
October 9th, 2010.  
  
“I told Batman about Klarion,” Conner said curtly as soon as he answered.  
  
Aiden blinked at the tone for a moment before shaking his head.  
  
“Good work, but we’ve suddenly got a much bigger problem,” Aiden said clearly, “Tomorrow somethings going to go down with a volcano exploding; I have no idea where it is, you can probably get that magic wizard girl on your team to help, but the ones that set it off are a group of three robots-”  
  
“How do you know this?” Conner said, frustrated, “Are you working with Red Tornado?”  
  
Working with Red Tornado? Why did he make it sound like working with a hero was a bad thing?  
  
“What? Well, no-I’m not even a hero, you know that, Conner.” Aiden said, frowning. “It doesn’t matter anyway; look, the point is that the water and fire ones will probably be attacking soon-”  
  
“Aiden, they already attacked us last month,” Conner said darkly.  
  
Aiden tried to parse that bit of information completely without success.  
  
“What the hell? Did the volcano explode as well? I didn’t see it on the news?” Aiden said, honestly shocked.  
  
“I don’t know anything about a volcano,” Conner said firmly.  
  
Aiden wracked his brain for an answer to the situation.  
  
If the two androids, Red Inferno and Red Water-guy had already attacked a month ago, but the volcano hadn’t exploded yet, had they not gone after him yet for some reason?  
  
“Conner, where is Red Tornado?” Aiden tried.  
  
Did they manage to beat the robots somehow before they could do it? Red Tornado might know what was going on.  
  
“Nobody knows,” Conner said angrily. “He attacked us after we finally beat those other robots.”  
  
Red Tornado attacked them? What-  
  
“Oh,” Aiden said in understanding.  
  
That’s what he had been missing; they captured Red Tornado! Turned him to their side somehow, and then they later went after him in revenge? Then the volcano stuff happened at a different point in the series!  
  
“Okay, I know what’s going on now.” Aiden said firmly, “Conner, tomorrow, they are going to blow up a volcano in an attempt to destroy the world and kill everybody on the planet; you guys need to get on that immediately, sooner, the better.”  
  
“Where?” Conner said hesitantly, after another long moment.  
  
“I can’t remember the name-but it’s in America somewhere; get Robin to search for volcano’s that could do damage on that level with help from a super-powerful geokinetic android,” Aiden suggested, “Or tell Batman about it; actually, you should probably get them on it anyway better safe then extinct, right?”  
  
“Fine-” Conner snapped before sighing. “Thanks.”  
  
Not the most grateful thank you he had ever received, but the kid was clearly under some stress.  
  
“If you want some help, send me a message,” Aiden offered to try and soften the exchange. “Good luck Conner.”  
  


* * *

  
Aiden’s Apartment, Boston, 11:13 PM.  
October 11th, 2010.  
  
The result of him giving an early warning to Conner had ended up being entirely invisible.  
  
The volcano had still entered a very tenuous state in which it was in the process of exploding, the massive ash cloud had still appeared, and the heroes had still managed to avoid everyone dying.  
  
There had already been news reports on the situation flooding every station, a police investigation into the culprit had revealed some key information to the public about the villain responsible, and there were even several things recovered from the secret base under Yellowstone Park.  
  
According to the news reports, the man who’d been reported by the heroes to be behind the plot was one Thomas Morrow, or T. O. Morrow-a villain’s name if he’d ever heard one.  
  
A bit of further investigation revealed that the man was somehow almost a hundred years old.  
  
The pictures that had surfaced of the man’s mechanical body had shown that he was one of the super-realistic fake humans, like the pilot Bromwell Stikk had been. The real man had been bedridden and in a coma for years.  
  
He had somehow created a perfect copy of himself in machine form. That very machine had been designing things like the replica of Bromwell, Mister Twister, and Red Volcano-a much more advanced android than Morrow had even managed in his original body.  
  
The systems inside the recovered body were reported as completely indistinguishable from humans, even while under intense scrutiny, some kind of visual and scanning interference that reported them as completely normal.  
  
A man that was capable of completely creating a human-level intelligent robot capable of defeating advanced scanning systems, who’d had decades to accomplish whatever he wanted while staying hidden-Aiden was about two million percent certain that the old man lying in a bed in Belle Reve Penitentiary was about as real as the one in Yellowstone had been.  
  
Thomas Morrow, from the very little Aiden, actually remembered, had been defeated pretty early in the series and had nothing to do with the larger shadow organization, or at least he thought so.  
  
So the question that was burning inside him now was; how on earth could Enkidu have known about anything to do with this situation in the first place?  
  
Thomas Morrow had worked with Bromwell, and that was it, so unless she was in contact with him, how could she have found out about the volcano days before he revealed his plan-especially when it was in such a hidden location?  
  
“Well, I know one way to find out,” Aiden said quietly.  
  
He opened his phone and carefully crafted a message, making sure to really load it up before hitting send. There was a period of almost twenty minutes before he finally got a reply, but the wait did nothing to dampen the chill that ran down his spine.  
  
  
  


* * *

  
Aiden’s Apartment, Boston, 8:13 AM.  
October 12th, 2010.  
  
“That’s stretching the line of ‘bodyguard,’” Aiden said dryly, “Who exactly are you going after this time?”  
  
Enkidu had called him the next day and made absolutely no reference to the hypothetical he had sent to her last night, so he did the same.  
  
“A villain, Doctor Thaddeus Sivana,” Enkidu said easily.  
  
A villain? The name wasn’t familiar to him, but if he had ‘Doctor’ in his name, he must have been one of the crazy scientist-types.  
  
“Why are you going after him in the first place-better yet, why do you need me at all?” Aiden said curiously, “I’ve fought you; I think you can handle yourself.”  
  
“He has a heavy hitter on his side,” Enkidu said seriously, “I don’t know who it is, but they found me when I was doing reconnaissance.”  
  
“So, you want me to what?” Aiden guessed, “Keep this mysterious person off of you?”  
  
“That’s exactly what I’m asking,” Enkidu said cheekily, “I need you to body-block them while I take Sivana down, he’s a pretty big name, so this should do wonders for your reputation.”  
  
Aiden could tell that she was hitting him in the weak spots, but a boost in reputation would help him draw in more clients.  
  
“How strong is this person?” Aiden said hesitantly, unable to help himself.  
  
The idea of a nice fight was already sending a thrill up his spine.  
  
“Stronger than me physically, faster too.” Enkidu said honestly, “I was more skilled by far, but I couldn’t even do any damage to them when I did land hits; it felt like fighting you in a way-they had much better technique, though—you kind of suck.”  
  
Aiden huffed at the jab; despite what she said, he was getting better with every single fight he had with Conner, and the tutelage of Diana was probably the main factor in his increasing skill.  
  
“How did you get away?” Aiden asked curiously.  
  
“I set off a fire in the building, and they broke off to deal with it before it could destroy the building.” Enkidu admitted carefully, “I pretty much fled; I was getting my ass kicked.”  
  
That alone tilted him all the way into accepting the job. A potential battle with somebody who was stronger than Enkidu but less skilled? That sounded like someone he could have an equal match against.  
  
“How much are you paying me?” Aiden sighed, caving in. “You better make it worth my while.”  
  
He could almost hear her smile as he agreed to take the job, and he raised an eye at the price she offered.  
  
“Is this a funded venture?” Aiden asked curiously, “Or do you just really hate this Savana guy? That’s not exactly a small chunk of change.”  
  
There was a moment where Enkidu paused to choose her words more carefully.  
  
“Doctor Sivana has been one of my long term objectives for a while,” Enkidu admitted cagily, “I only recently figured out where he was hiding.”  
  
It didn’t really answer his question, but he wasn’t sure it would matter too much in this case. The guy was known publically as a villain and had presumably committed multiple crimes, he would have to look into him a bit to make sure that was the case, but you could find a lot of stuff online about these villains.  
  
“Alright, when, where, and how are we doing this?” Aiden prompted, “Give me the deets, bae.”  
  
She left him hanging for just long enough for him to huff out a complaint before she spoke up.  
  
“Total cringe—” Enkidu snickered. “Alright, this is what we’re going to do.”  
  
Aiden felt like pouting.  
  


* * *

  
Fawcett City, 3:13 PM.  
October 13th, 2010.  
  
Fawcett City was pretty lively, even during the day.  
  
Aiden didn’t stand out too much, wearing his business suit and walking towards the café he was supposed to meet Sarah at. Apparently, they were supposed to be meeting before moving to Doctor Sivana’s current location. The villain had moved locations several times after the assault on his previous base. However, Sarah had indicated that she had managed to tag several of the man’s vehicles in advance just in case.  
  
He noticed her almost immediately, looking the same as she had last time he saw her unmasked-without her costume on, her appearance was that of someone completely normal. It was almost jarring how much she seemed to fit in, sitting at a table drinking her beverage of choice.  
  
After stepping through the door, he approached the counter and ordered his own before moving to sit across from her.  
  
“There are two cars currently in the city, ones on the east side of the city-in transit-the other is about ten blocks north-west, parked in an underground car park,” Sarah said, smiling, before taking a sip of her drink.  
  
“Plans never survive contact with the enemy, huh?” Aiden said idly, “Are we splitting up?”  
  
“No, we can stick with the plan, slightly modified.” Sarah said easily, “If I get caught out by the bodyguard, there’s no base I can set on fire this time.”  
  
Aiden just nodded in agreement.  
  
“We can go after the closest one first, investigate the building, see if we can’t find Sivana.” Sarah outlined, “If he’s not in the building, or nearby we can go after the other one.”  
  
“Are you sure he’s still here at all?” Aiden asked curiously. “What if he took a plane trip somewhere else?”  
  
“I have surveillance footage of him entering the city in one of the cars,” Sarah admitted, “There was a shell-game play along the way, so exactly which of the two cars he left in is now unknown-but he is absolutely in one of them-or was at least.”  
  
“Alright,” Aiden said evenly, “What’s the slightly modified part of the plan?”  
  
Sarah finished the last of her drink, and with his improved sense of smell, he could tell it was hot chocolate.  
  
“I was originally counting on sneaking into his building while you provided the distraction, but the fact that he’s moved locations—to a populated area as well—makes this much more difficult,” Sarah said, frowning. “His guard is now up, we don’t know the layout of the buildings, and he has had time to prepare for us.”  
  
Aiden nodded, thinking about all of it.  
  
“Instead of you just busting in and drawing all of the attention, we will be attempting to hit them with a blitzkrieg,” Sarah said carefully, studying his face for signs of discontent. “As soon as we locate him, I will snatch him and run. You’ll need to hold the bodyguard off long enough for me to get away, and I’ll send you a signal as soon as I’m out of range.”  
  
It seemed solid enough for him, his own flying travel speed would allow him to get away afterward without much difficulty, but Sarah would need to travel by foot.  
  
“How long do you think you’ll need to get out of range?” Aiden wondered.  
  
“Ten minutes, max,” Sarah said quietly.  
  
“What do I get when I beat them in five?” Aiden said, grinning.  
  
Sarah let out a startled laugh at the brag.  
  
“You’re definitely underestimating our mystery fighter,” Sarah said, amused, “But maybe I’ll let you take me out for dinner.”  
  
He raised an eyebrow at her archly.  
  
“I thought I was going to get a reward,” Aiden smirked. “But instead, I get a punishment, figures.”  
  
“Hey!” Sarah squawked indignantly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Authors Notes:  
> Hmmmmmm. Hmmmmmmmmmmm. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. 10 internet points to whoever can guess who the 'bodyguard' is, I won't be confirming it until the next chapter.
> 
> I've lost an entire day of writing this week, and I'm going to blame it entirely on my birthday so I'm a little bit behind on the chapters, worry not; the experiment must continue. If you notice any glaring issues call em out and like it or hate it, tell me what you think!
> 
> Lame ass calls to action:  
> If you want me to spend more of my writing, want to help me out, or simply want to show some support for Reroll, check out my Patreon. You could drop by and leave a comment, or review-whatever you feel like on any of the sites I post stuff on!
> 
> Stay safe fam.


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Authors Notes:  
> Life is getting busy again. Enjoy.
> 
> Lame ass calls to action:  
> If you want me to spend more of my writing, want to help me out, or simply want to show some support for Reroll, check out my Patreon. You could drop by and leave a comment, or review-whatever you feel like on any of the sites I post stuff on!
> 
> Stay safe fam.

_Fawcett City, 3:29 PM.  
October 13th, 2010._  
  
They both left the coffee shop separately, splitting off and getting into costume while out of sight, before meeting two buildings over, on the rooftop; Enkidu was already there when he touched down, and he nodded in greeting.  
  
“Alright, one minute to mission start,” Enkidu demanded, “Tell me the plan.”  
  
“You think I forgot it in five minutes?” Aiden said, annoyed, before noticing her smirk. “Fuck off.”  
  
Enkidu laughed before moving to the edge of the roof, and Aiden lifted off the ground in preparation, already searching the target building for Ki-signatures.  
  
He hadn’t really been paying attention to it before, but now that he was actively focusing on it, he noticed that something had changed in Sarah’s own signature; it was honestly barely noticeable. It hadn’t grown at all, but it felt just the tiniest bit _different_ somehow. He couldn’t really put a word to the feeling, broader or deeper, maybe?  
  
More vibrant?  
  
He didn’t have any more time to waste on the feeling, though, as he found a cluster of signatures inside the seventh floor of the building attached to the underground car park, none of which were any bigger than anyone else he had ever seen before.  
  
Enkidu moved suddenly, sprinting over towards the ledge and crossing the street to the next roof in an instant. Aiden caught up to her a second later, wondering if she had always been this fast; she was seemingly moving even faster than when they had fought. He’d grown much more during that time as well, though, and he had no issue with matching her pace.  
  
They reached the roof of the building, and Aiden dropped down behind one of the men in black suits. He slipped his arm under the guy’s neck and cranked it, apply pressure on the man’s carotid artery; the man choked for a few seconds before he slipped into unconsciousness. The two opposite him had enough time to turn towards the noise before Enkidu was on them, and they were both unconscious on the ground within seconds.  
  
The two of them slipped into the roof access stairway and made their way downstairs, Aiden leading the way straight to the cluster of people that he was pretty certain was Sivana. Someone started moving towards the door before he had even kicked it open.  
  
Aiden, despite knowing they were directly in front of him, barely saw the punch that hit him in the chest and sent him flying backward and through the wall of the building. He was in the open air for a moment before he arrested his momentum with a burst of ki and threw himself straight back through the hole.  
  
A woman with black hair turned from advancing on Enkidu as he slammed into her and lifted her off the ground. He smashed her into the room with the group of people, saw a brief flash of black suits and a short, balding man before he drove her straight out the other side of the building—leaving Enkidu to handle the situation inside.  
  
He made it about two blocks away before the woman regained her bearings and broke out of his grip with a strength that he now knew surpassed his own by far. Aiden swung at the woman and landed the hit, to his surprise, and she was sent flipping backward before she suddenly crashed into him again.  
  
Aiden’s crossed guard failed to stop the charge, and his forearms smashed into his face, sending it rocking backward. The woman hit him before he had recovered, and it felt like taking an angry punch from Conner _but worse._  
  
“Fuck!” Aiden swore, holding his now crooked nose and snapping it back into place. “Who the hell are you?”  
  
When Enkidu said ‘heavy hitter,’ he thought she meant that she was just a little bit out of her league—whoever this chick was, she was much, much stronger than him.  
  
“You’re the one attacking us, and you don’t even know who we are?” The woman scoffed. “Suppose it doesn’t matter; you won’t be around for much longer, and then I’ll deal with that other one—never had to kill someone twice before.”  
  
 _Everything_ about what she just said pissed him off, and he didn’t have a clue about what she meant by “killing someone twice,” worst of all, his face fucking hurt. Strangely enough, though, once he had a moment to actually take in her appearance, he felt like he had seen her before.  
  
“My name is Bubbles, and I’m going to kick your ass now,” Aiden said clearly, wiping the blood away from his mouth. “This is where you introduce yourself.”  
  
The tall woman smirked at him as she floated in the air, completely unaided.  
  
“Call me Divine,” Divine smirked, cracking her neck.  
  
He’d never heard the name before, and her ‘costume’ if he could even consider it one wasn’t familiar either—simply a black bikini, pants, and combat boots. Divine suddenly turned back towards the building angrily, and Aiden was forced to move before she could interfere with whatever was happening inside.  
  
Aiden exploded towards her at his top speed, and heel dropped her as hard as he could; Divine vanished from in front of him before the asphalt below shattered as she hit it, scattering chunks of the road in every direction and setting off a car alarm in the process.  
  
“What a shame!” Aiden taunted, calling out to make sure she heard. “You might have gotten back in the building if it wasn’t for that _Divine_ intervention-”  
  
Aiden tore his head back as twin lines of red flashed through space he was just in, and he had to jaunt backward as Divine cut through the air where he was standing, looking angry.  
  
“Wait! Time the fuck out!” Aiden demanded, painfully blocking the next punch and being sent rocketing backward for his efforts. “Were those _eye_ beams? Are you a Kryptonian!?”  
  
Divine didn’t answer as she launched a series of punches that he switched to trying to avoid because blocking her hits _sucked._ He failed to get out of the way of the next one, and the next thing he knew, he was buried in the road, much like he had done to her a moment before.  
  
Aiden coughed and forced himself to his feet, but his eyesight cut out, and he desperately jacked his ki up to its maximum as he was suddenly dragged face-first through the asphalt, digging a mile-long trench with the back of his head. He kept on powering up and dug his foot into the road while bringing out roshi’s technique to try and match her strength.  
  
His right arm swelled before he struck out at her—the hit landed with an ear-splitting crack before shattering the road around them with the force.  
  
Divine caught the punch with her other hand with seemingly no additional effort, and he stared at her for a long moment.  
  
“That’s all you’ve got?” Divine smirked, still holding him by the face. “Here, I thought this would be fun.”  
  
“I’ll show you fun,” Aiden gritted, raising his free hand and launching a ki blast directly at her face.  
  
Divine was set rocketing backward before it exploded violently in mid-air, sending her through another wall and into the bottom floor of a building. Aiden scrambled to his feet and did a frantic search with his Ki-sense.  
  
Enkidu and another ki-signature were almost at the edge of the city, which meant that he only had to keep Divine occupied for another couple of minutes. Divine stumbled out of the debris, covered in dirt, pants torn—but otherwise completely unharmed.  
  
“How are you not even hurt? That is _such_ bullshit,” Aiden insisted, “You’re a god damned cheater.”  
  
“Shut the fuck up,” Divine demanded, stomping towards him.  
  
“How about no, idiot.” Aiden quipped before flying upwards as fast as he could.  
  
Divine followed him barely a second later, and she was closing in on him fast.  
  
“Kryptonians are bullshit!” Aiden shouted.  
  
If he survived this, he was going to train his ass off, if only so that he could come back and kick her invulnerable ass. Divine seemed intent on not giving him a chance to fulfill his new life-goal because she grabbed him by the leg and dragged him down before punching him in the face.  
  
Aiden’s kick landed against her cheek at the same time, and they were thrown away from each other. He sent a burst of ki behind him and used the propulsion to kick her right in the chest, sending her further backward. He had to wipe the blood out of his eye, as her last hit had opened a cut above his eyebrow.  
  
“Where is that piece of trash taking him?” Divine said darkly, snapping her bikini strap back into place from where it had started to slip. “Why the hell are _you_ even here?”  
  
He couldn’t feel Enkidu anymore as she was out of his range, which meant he was pretty much home free—he just needed to get away now.  
  
“Jail, I would assume,” Aiden said sarcastically, “You know that place they put criminals?”  
  
The comment wasn’t appreciated, apparently, but this time he was expecting it, so he managed to get his ki-shield up before she got him again. Divine’s hit _cracked_ it—which he had never seen before—and he was forced to channel more ki into it to repair it.  
  
“Why are you working for Savana?” Aiden said with a faux calm while furiously trying to figure out how he was going to get away.  
  
Divine struck the shield against, harder than before, and it almost shattered entirely before he managed to fix it again.  
  
“Doctor _Sivana_. I’m going to break your shitty little _bubble_ ,” Divine said darkly, “I’m going to break _you_ , and then I’m going to go find your friend.”  
  
Well, that was terrifying; time for drastic measures.  
  
He’d been working on it since he first figured out how to use his Ki, and it had gotten to the point where he could use it effectively. Aiden had also spent some time experimenting with trying to change the color, but that was still just a work in progress.  
  
He’d actually used it once against Conner as a test because he’d been curious if it would even work on him. Thankfully it _had_ worked and _hadn’t_ made the guy stronger than he already was because that would have made it completely useless right now.  
  
This would be the first time he would be trying it against a full Kryptonian; Aiden placed his hands in front of his face and started gathering ki.  
  
“Yeah?” Aiden said mockingly, Ki rising high. “Well, I’m going to _drop_ my bubble, I’m going to come out there, and then I’m going to-SOLAR FLARE!”  
  
He dropped his bubble and pushed as much ki into the technique as he could, and the world went white as a buzzing sound filled the air. Divine shouted in pain as she was suddenly overwhelmed with the white light.  
  
He held it just long enough for the technique for it to become temporarily self-sustaining and then fled at his maximum speed, eyes clenched tightly shut.  
  
Aiden crossed the city in an instant and left it behind him in under a second. He headed straight towards the only place he knew that she would be reasonably worried about following him into.  
  
He’d never flown as fast as he was right now, and he was burning ki at a completely unsustainable rate even as everything blurred around him, his eyes no longer able to keep up. He wasn’t exactly being stealthy either, as he had traded that completely for speed—his aura was a bright spark in the sky and a beacon for her to follow, and he could already feel her catching up.  
  
He pushed everything he had into moving faster, even as she steadily closed in on him, and the world around him lost all detail; a grey smudge appeared in the distance, and he felt ki-signatures burst into existence far in front of him—Divine suddenly broke off the chase and retreated.  
  
Aiden came to a stop directly above Metropolis, gasping for breath but triumphant. Nothing but a speck of Ki remained, and he felt his ki-sense vanish, as it had nothing left to fuel it.  
  
He dropped down to the building directly below him and collapsed.  
  
“I win,” Aiden managed weakly.  
  
“Are you alright?” Divine’s voice said curiously, floating in the air behind him. “Why do you look like your about to pass out?”  
  
Aiden threw himself into a roll across the roof and spun to face her in alarm, unable to believe she had followed him into the city—oh. Unless Divine had used the last ten seconds to dye her hair blonde and change her costume entirely to white, this wasn’t her. If not for the hair color, though, they might as well have been twins. It was the first time he had ever seen what she looked like, but like when he had first spotted Divine, there was a sense of familiarity.  
  
“I’ve been better,” Aiden said warily; this was the girl from Conner’s team that he had seen on the news. “You’re Power Girl, right?”  
  
“Got it in one, Bubbles.” Power Girl said, smirked, “I know who you are as well; Robin and Superboy have both mentioned you before.”  
  
That smirk was bringing back memories of getting his ass kicked not five minutes ago.  
  
“Do you have a sister?” Aiden said suddenly, he had no fucking idea what was going on at this point. “With black hair?”  
  
“Uh,” Power Girl said, surprised, “No? Why?”  
  
“I just got my ass kicked by a woman who looked exactly like you, except with black hair—she said her name was Divine.” Aiden said easily, “She was also a Kryptonian—at least I think so—she was throwing around eye beams and shit.”  
  
“What?” Power Girl said weakly. “That’s not…she looked like me—what?”  
  
Aiden flopped back on his back and groaned.  
  
“Close enough to be identical twins,” Aiden muttered, staring up at the sky. “I think I need to talk to Superman.”  
  


* * *

  
 _Wayne Tech, Metropolis, 4:49 PM.  
October 13th, 2010._  
  
Of course, _Batman_ had an office building right smack bang in the middle of Superman’s City.  
  
Aiden followed the blonde hero down the staircase and into an elevator that only opened after she placed her hand on an inconspicuous panel.  
  
“Is this a spy movie now?” Aiden said tiredly, stepping inside.  
  
“You don’t seem like you would make a very good spy.” Power Girl smirked.  
  
Aiden wondered if he should be offended at that; he’d be a _great_ spy. The elevator moved surprisingly quickly, and if not for his ki-sense that was once again being fueled by the slowly regenerating ki—he wouldn’t have known whether they were going up or down. They dropped below the ground floor, and when the door opened, they were in a room with some couches, a table, a countertop, and a door.  
  
“He’s on his way now; it won’t be long.” Power Girl said easily, taking one of the couches for herself and kicking one leg over the other. “Tell me more about this twin of mine.”  
  
Aiden dropped down onto one of the chairs several meters away from here, just in case.  
  
“She was working for a guy called Doctor Sivana,” Aiden said, frowning. “Don’t know what her job actually was, though.”  
  
The elevator dinged before opening, and he watched as Superman stepped into the room, in full costume; the guy was big.  
  
“Clark Kent, nice to see meet you at last,” Aiden said easily.  
  
Power Girl jumped at the name, and Aiden gave her a curious glance before turning back in time to catch Clark’s eyes flashing.  
  
“Aiden Neve,” Clark said evenly. “It’s nice to meet you as well.”  
  
Wow, the guy just face checked him, and somehow Aiden hadn’t even thought that was a possibility. Rude.  
  
“Woah! He knows your name?” Power Girl said, shocked. “Aiden Neve? That’s the guy that came in the space ship a while back!”  
  
“He seems to know everyone’s name,” Clark said, smiling. “What’s the situation?”  
  
“Oh! He found another Kryptonian!” Power Girl said quickly, staring at the larger man.“Aiden said she looks identical to me, except with black hair—”  
  
Clark’s eyes went wide, and he turned to look at him, surprise clear on his face. Aiden frowned at her use of his name but didn’t mention it; there were more important things such as the connection he had just made to where he had seen her face before.  
  
Why the hell did Emil have one of these Power Girl knock off’s working as his assistant?  
  
“No,” Aiden interjected, cutting her off. “There’s actually two of them, one is blonde, and the other has black hair.”  
  
“Two?!” Power Girl said, astonished.  
  
“You haven’t seen Karen at her job by accident?” Clark suggested, trying to make sense of the information.  
  
“Hey!” Karen yelped before looking at the complete lack of surprise on Aiden’s face. “Oh, you knew my name already.”  
  
He didn’t, but he nodded anyway, no point in throwing Clark under the bus—it would do more damage to the bus anyway.  
  
“No, the other blonde is called Tea,” Aiden said, frowning. “The black-haired one is called Divine.”  
  
Clones. Fucking _clones of clones._  
  
There was actually _another_ one of these aliens running around that he had forgotten, or it might have already been dealt with, but either way, he needed to tell Clark—Shit, he needed to talk to _Conner_.  
  
“Hold that thought,” Aiden said seriously, pulling his phone out and dialing a number.  
  
“Who are you calling?” Karen said, alarmed, stepping towards him.  
  
Clark placed his hand on her shoulder gently, stopping her from grabbing him.  
  
“Conner? You need to come and meet me at the Wayne Tech building in Metropolis,” Aiden said evenly. “You weren’t the only clone—there’s another one—called Project Match.”


	22. Chapter 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Authors Notes:  
> Life is still busy but we are making it work. A bunch of character headshots commissioned for Reroll, they look pretty awesome ngl, still planning on slapping it all together into a 'World of Reroll' styled book. won't be finished any time soon at the current rate they are coming in though, so you'll just have to take my word for it. Enjoy the chapter.
> 
> Lame ass calls to action:  
> If you want me to spend more of my writing, or working on content for Reroll or other original stuff, feel like helping me out, or simply want to show some support because you like the cut of my jib, check out my Patreon. You could drop by and leave a comment, or review-whatever you feel like on any of the sites I post stuff on!
> 
> Stay safe fam.

Wayne Tech, Metropolis, 5:31 PM.  
October 13th, 2010.

Conner arrived and looked around at the three of them warily before stepping out of the elevator.  
  
Aiden finally broke his silence, having refused to say anything until they were all there.  
  
“What is Project Match?” Conner said darkly.  
  
“It was either the original attempt by Cadmus to clone Superman, or it was a clone of you, I can’t remember.” Aiden said honestly, “It’s in a hidden room inside Cadmus; there’s also a bunch of those mind reading things underneath the place as well, building a small city or something.”  
  
“Genomorph’s.” Conner managed, explaining for the benefit of the others.  
  
Aiden nodded.  
  
“Two clones of Karen as well,” Clark said seriously, “As well as another clone of Conner or me. This is completely out of control.”  
  
Conner’s eyes went wide, having not heard of the prior part, and turned to stare at Power Girl, and it managed to derail his hyperfocus for a second.  
  
“Is cloning illegal?” Aiden asked, frowning, thinking of Emil.  
  
He didn’t want to get the guy into trouble, especially after everything he had done for him.  
  
“Without special dispensation, agreement from the donor, and depending on the intent,” Clark said, watching him. “You can do it legally, although the process is not a simple one.”  
  
“Why are you asking about that?” Karen said curiously.  
  
Emil had been completely at ease with having his assistant in front of him, despite the clone's appearance. Karen didn’t seem to have agreed to any donations of her DNA in order to create the clone and was unaware of either of them.  
  
“Goddammit, man,” Aiden muttered before raising his voice. “Emil Hamilton has a clone of Karen, who introduced herself as Tea; working as his assistant.”  
  
“Emil?” Clark said, astonished. “That’s—why would he—this doesn’t make any sense!”  
  
“She was at my last appointment; I talked to her for like twenty minutes, she was very confident,” Aiden said evenly, “I didn’t realize who she looked like until I got a better look at the other one, and Karen today.”  
  
Conner looked like he wanted to speak up again but was watching the expressions flash across Clark’s face.  
  
“Dr. Sivana obviously didn’t go through that legal process either, given that the guy is a supervillain, and nobody asked me if I was okay with being cloned,” Karen said angrily. “Where are they now? I’m suddenly in the mood to punch somebody.”  
  
“No,” Clark said seriously. “This is something the league will be handling, don’t go after any of them, Karen; we have no idea how dangerous they are, how strong they are, or if they are working together somehow.”  
  
Karen looked like she wanted to speak to Superman’s manager, but before she could voice her complaint—Conner spoke up.  
  
“What about Project Match?” Conner demanded, “We need to get him out of Cadmus! I’m not going to leave—”  
  
Superman raised his hands and gestured for him to calm down.  
  
“We aren’t going to leave him there, Conner,” Clark said reassuringly, voice still tight.  
  
“He’s going to need some help afterward,” Aiden interjected steadily, “Whatever technique they used was unstable, he doesn’t really understand what’s going on around him, and he’s prone to attacking anything on sight.”  
  
Conner looked furious at the news and clenched his hands by his side, unsure how to even address a problem that he couldn’t just hit.  
  
“Aiden, I’m going to ask you to come with me when I explain this to the others,” Clark said seriously, “There’s going to be questions, the foremost being how you know all of this—”  
  
“I’ll come with you,” Aiden interjected, “On the condition that these two be included in this, they have just as much stake in this as you do, and cutting them out is just going to piss them off or make them run off on there own to handle it.”  
  
Clark looked distinctly unhappy with the idea, but unless he was going to physically drag me to his meeting—obviously something he would be capable of—but not something he would be inclined to do, so he was going to have to deal with it.  
  
Nobody wanted a pyrrhic victory after all.  
  
“We’re coming,” Conner said forcibly, and Karen nodded, stepping up beside him.  
  


* * *

  
Wayne Tech, Metropolis, 6:47 PM.  
October 13th, 2010.  
  
“I’m not sure I’m comfortable with this at all,” Aiden said nervously, staring at the machine.  
  
He really had no idea how this thing worked exactly, but the idea of being dematerialized and then put back together somewhere else wasn’t exactly a fun one. Would his stream of consciousness suddenly end—and another Aiden would step out of the other side, having no idea that he wasn’t the original?  
  
“It’s perfectly safe,” Clark reassured, “If anything starts to go wrong, it will simply shut down—there’s plenty of safeguards.”  
  
“Didn’t you fight a Kryptonian earlier?” Karen said, smirking, “Are you really scared of this of all things? We use them all the time!”  
  
Conner didn’t say anything, but he had also turned his head away, likely to hide his amusement. Aiden huffed at the absolute betrayal; maybe he should have just left them out of it after all?  
  
A light flashed out and scanned Clark, head to foot.  
  
“Recognized,” A digitized female voice spoke, “Superman, 01.”  
  
The hero vanished a moment later and left the three of them standing just out of range of the machine.  
  
“Aiden,” Conner said quietly, “Thanks.”  
  
“Don’t worry about it,” Aiden nodded before turning to look at the machine and shaking his head. “Alright, I’m going in.”  
  
The light struck out at him.  
  
“Recognized,” The same voice said calmly, “A04, Aiden Neve.”  
  
Aiden frowned at the name before stepping out of the light and into a new room, wondering if he was still the same person or a new offshoot. Three large rings, not unlike the machine he has stood before mere moments ago, sat behind him, on a platform. He took a moment to study the room; it was large, mostly empty, and covered by massive glass panes instead of walls, only the structural supports visible.  
  
Outside the window, he could see a sea of stars, and to the right-hand side, he could see the earth looming large. He stared out into the emptiness for a long moment before stepping down off the platform and onto the staircase.  
  
Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman were all standing across from him, watching.  
  
“Recognized,” The voice said, “B04, Superboy.”  
  
Conner appeared, stepping out of the light and pausing to take in the room, much like he had.  
  
“Recognized,” The voice repeated, “B06, Power Girl.”  
  
Aiden took note of the different codes; his own had been A04, while there’s had been B04 and B06 respectively—Supermans hadn’t had a letter at all. What did the A denote, or the B? It probably didn’t matter to his current situation, but it was interesting never the less.  
  
“Welcome to the Watchtower,” Superman said easily.  
  
Aiden stepped off the staircase and moved towards them.  
  
“I like it, it’s very—” Aiden smirked, “Spacious.”  
  
Diana scrunched up her face at the terrible joke, and he could hear a groan of disappointment from behind him.  
  
“Unfortunately, that isn’t the first time I’ve heard that,” Superman said dryly.  
  
“Aiden,” Batman said suddenly, voice clear. “How did you come to know about Project Match?”  
  
Well, his identity was well and truly gone now, even if it had been a paper-thin disguise after Clark had x-rayed him in retaliation for calling him by name. He reached up and pulled the damaged mask off his face, along with the black form-fitting padding that Byrna had made for him.  
  
“Thanks for registering me as Aiden boys; I didn’t like having the anonymity anyway,” Aiden said, annoyed, “Real swell of you, Clark, Bruce.”  
  
There was another intake of breath behind him from both of the younger heroes, but Batman didn’t make any move to retaliate, instead of waiting patiently for his answer. It had been a long time coming; either way, now was a good a time as any to address the situation.  
  
“Same way I knew about all of your identities,” Aiden said simply, answering the initial question. “Nothings changed there; I’d actually forgotten about it entirely because I had only ever seen it mentioned once a very long time ago, and I put the pieces together recently—after I got my ass beat and started thinking about cloned Kryptonians.”  
  
Technically true, it had been a single episode a very long time ago, and the sudden spark after he realized that they had cloned another Kryptonian had been like a lightning strike—he only wished it had hit him earlier.  
  
“Where is it located?” Batman said seriously.  
  
“Same place Conner here was, there’s a fake wall or something, might not have been the same room actually, not sure.” Aiden scratched his chin for a moment. “Nobody knows it’s there either, as far as I know, only the Genomorphs.”  
  
“You said you saw it once, a long time ago,” Diana said pointedly, “How do you know the current state of things?”  
  
“I don’t,” Aiden admitted, “I’m making predictions based on the information I’ve got in my head, where Match is now, could be right, could be wrong—but that’s where he was.”  
  
He couldn’t remember exactly what had kick-started that plotline, but it had something to do with Lex Luthor—Oh!  
  
“Lex Luthor is the other half of your donated DNA as well, Conner, if you care about that at all,” Aiden said, frowning. “Actually, I’m pretty sure the entire clone situation involved Conner and Match was a Luthor-made scenario.”  
  
“Lex Luthor?” Conner said quietly.  
  
“One of the primary subjects we had suspicions on,” Batman said simply, “How sure are you about Luthors involvement?”  
  
“It was him, a hundred percent; just see if Conner wants to give you a sample, and you’ll see it’s a match,” Aiden said easily, “At the very least, that makes him an accomplice to creating him, unwillingly donated DNA or otherwise.”  
  
“How bad is his condition?” Superman said hesitantly, “You said he was aggressive?”  
  
Something twigged at the back of his mind, but he couldn’t quite grasp it, something to do with Luthor.  
  
“Very aggressive, he will attack anyone with an ‘S’ on their chest, or that makes an aggressive move against him, he might just attack anyone nearby I’m not actually sure,” Aiden frowned, “I think that his body was starting to decline as well, before they froze him, so you’ll have to look into that as well.  
  
“If he attacks everything nearby,” Diana interjected, “What was his intended purpose? A weapon? How did Luthor intend to control him?”  
  
Conner shuffled at the sound of the word weapon, and Aiden felt that tickle in the back of his mind bloom into understanding as her last question burst the bubble.  
  
“Shit. Luthor has mental commands or phrases that can make them do things,” Aiden said quickly, “I think Conner has some as well; I have no idea what they were, though.”  
  
“What?” Conner said angrily, “So he can just use them whenever he feels like it? What do they do?”  
  
Aiden racked his memory; it was that exact same episode; what had it done? Let Luthor getaway uncaptured somehow?  
  
“I think one of them shuts you down,” Aiden said, frowning, “Like an off switch, just bam, suddenly sleeping, or unware of the passage of time.”  
  
“How the hell do you know any of this?” Karen said bewildered, “Was this just written down somewhere? Or did you just overhear someone talking about it?”  
  
“It’s a long story,” Aiden said seriously, “Four years ago, I met a man downtown, and he told me about a hidden shop, wedged between two alleyways. Rumors of an old lady that lived there, above her own shop, who could tell the future.”  
  
Karen’s eyes widened, and nobody moved to interrupt me as I explained what they all wanted to know.  
  
“I went there; how could I not? I had to know if it was true,” Aiden said determinedly, “I found the shop, exactly where he said it was, and the woman was real. I’ll never forget the things she told me that night—but one thing stood out above all of the others.”  
  
Aiden turned and met everyone’s eyes before shaking his head sadly.  
  
“The old lady leaned over and whispered in my ear,” Aiden leaned in, and stage whispered. “Everything I just said was complete bullshit, and I’m not telling any of you a damn thing.”  
  
Karen flushed in anger and embarrassment before crossing her arms, and Clark coughed awkwardly to cover his own reaction to being caught up in the tale—but Batman didn’t even twitch.  
  
“Moving past that fascinating tale,” Diana sighed, “Is there anything stopping us from simply going to Cadmus and retrieving him right now? Any dangers that you know of? Traps, or deceptions?”  
  
“Other then the fake wall, the mind-controlling Genomorphs, and the very likely reality that he will attack as soon as you wake him up—nothing that I know of,” Aiden said seriously, “If you want my advice—keep him in the preservation thing when you save him—bring it with you if you can—see if you can’t heal him before you wake him up because he deserves at least an attempt at a normal life if you can give it to him.”  
  
Conner had grown increasingly incensed as I suggested leaving him in the tank before he seemed to settle down by the end, understanding that I wasn’t implying that he was a lost cause.  
  
“Very well,” Batman said evenly, “The clones of Power Girl?”  
  
Aiden nodded at the subject divergence, and Karen stepped closer to listen.  
  
“Dr. Sivana had a woman named Divine working as his bodyguard; I don’t know if he was the one who cloned her, or if he just paying for her service—either way, she’s a Kryptonian.” Aiden summarised, “A friend of mine was on a mission to capture Dr. Sivana and toss the guy in jail, and she got her ass kicked by Divine, so she called me in to help—then I got my ass kicked by Divine, and called you in to help.”  
  
“Where is your ‘friend’ now?” Diana questioned, “Did she managed to complete her objective?”  
  
“I got a text earlier; she succeeded in capturing Dr. Sivana and escape unharmed,” Aiden nodded, “No idea when she plans to turn him over though, she might be waiting for the bodyguard to lose interest in murdering her first.”  
  
“The second is supposedly Emil Hamilton’s current assistant,” Superman said quietly. “I’ve never seen the man with her before, and he has never spoken to me about anything like this.”  
  
Nobody spoke for a long moment before Batman stepped forward.  
  
“Emil Hamilton has already vanished; he was last seen two days ago at his office in the Metropolis branch, STAR Labs.” Batman said evenly, “We have no idea of his current location or this ‘Tea.’”  
  
Well, fuck.  
  
How did Emil know he was going to be found out for cloning her two days ago? Before I even knew it was—No, he had deliberately brought Tea to that appointment almost a month ago now—and in public— seemingly without any attempt to hide her face at all at least that was the impression they had given him.  
  
If anyone else seen Tea, they most likely would have recognized her immediately—was he trying to trick me into thinking that Tea was the real Power Girl’s civilian identity? Did Emil have an expectation for Aiden to figure out who she was on sight?  
  
If that had been Emil’s goal, that meant he managed to fuck up whatever Emil’s plan was by the sheer luck of having not paid attention to what Power Girl looked like properly when he had first arrived in this insane place. Emil must have thought he was the dumbest motherfucker that had ever lived—and it wasn’t like he was even wrong in this instance.  
  
Aiden ignored the flush that was rising up his neck at the realization of how ignorant he had been. He took a deep breath and let it out before refocusing his mind, ignoring everyone else in the room.  
  
Emil had gone rogue, or had been playing the long game and was rogue all along—what did that mean for him?  
  
This guy was apparently a person who Superman knew personally, at least that was the impression he was giving off. So they had hired a personal friend of supermans—or maybe Clarks—in order to be responsible for his monthly appointments.  
  
Emil had been responsible for his medical checkups, tracking his physical progress to an extent, and he had even given the man a fucking sample! He told the man about Ki because they’d had a god damn bromance going on—the man managed to use all that information to hide his Ki as well, which vanished any chance he had of finding him with that method.  
  
Now the guy had shown that he was capable of growing clones of fucking Kryptonians, and now he had a sample of Aiden’s DNA.  
  
“Batman, you absolute motherfucker,” Aiden said with forced calm, drawing the man’s undivided attention, along with the rest of the room. “You hired a supervillain to play doctor for me, and now he has a sample of my DNA; he’s making clones of Superfam over here—am I going to be fighting off Aiden 2.0’s by Tuesday?”  
  
“He’s not a supervillain!” Superman protested, before admitting his own culpability. “I was the one who suggested Emil for the job.”  
  
Aiden couldn’t help but respect the man owning up to it without a shred of hesitation.  
  
“Oh, well, that makes everything better,” Aiden said brightly, “You really had me going for a minute there! Thank god it wasn’t Batman that hired him, wow!”  
  
Superman sighed.  
  
“None of us were aware that he had begun taking such drastic actions, Aiden.” Diana said soothingly, “I vetted him myself; he had no ulterior motive when we asked him—I made sure of that.”  
  
“You clearly didn’t ask him about anything substantial, like—oh, I don’t know, clones of Kryptonians? Activities that the league might disagree with?” Aiden said, annoyed. “That or your bondage of truth is broken.”  
  
“We did ask him about his activities—I’m willing to show you the transcript of the conversation,” Diana said, tone unchanged.  
  
Aiden could feel his anger dying; she wouldn’t have offered it so freely if she didn’t have it; she didn’t seem the type of lying so blatantly either. It didn’t negate the fact that Emil had apparently finessed his way past their questioning, or that they had simply asked the wrong questions. Now that he was thinking about it, hadn’t Emil said something about how the Justice League wasn’t omnipotent?  
  
The bastard had been taunting him to his face.  
  
“Fine, but you all suck,” Aiden snapped, “This is the second time since I made that deal with you that my shit has been stolen—Tell me you still have my ship at least? Or did you send that off with Emil as well?”


	23. Chapter 23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Authors Notes:  
> Only Perspective is Ki, and Reroll are getting updates today, ill see you next Friday for the full rotation update again. I've been working on another long-form original, and about 20k words into the initial draft atm, I'm having a lot of fun with that one. After the new year I'll be working towards Reroll getting Bi-weekly updates on Monday and Fridays, and more of the character artwork for the reroll companion book has come in, I'm super happy with those ones. I'd say I'm about a third of the way through the character artwork commissions, I have one full panel rendered by a guy that does some seriously epic art, I need to find someone who does concept art for cities next, so I can put in some of the main locations as well. That's my rant for the day, thanks for reading!
> 
> Lame ass calls to action:  
> If you want me to spend more of my time writing, or working on content for Reroll or other original stuff, you feel like helping me out, or you simply want to show some support because you are altruistic af, check out my Patreon. You could drop by and leave a comment, or review-whatever you feel like on any of the sites I post stuff on!
> 
> Stay safe fam, Merry Christmas, and Happy Holidays!

The Watchtower, Earth, 7:14 PM.  
October 13th, 2010.  
  
“Of course, we still have your ship,” Diana said gently. “It hasn’t left the Watchtower since we brought it here.”  
  
Aiden nodded and took a deep breath before blowing it out, nobody said anything for a moment, and he used it to regain his calm.  
  
“Okay,” Aiden said evenly, “Solutions time, we have several problems—Cadmus has Match hidden away in the basement, what are we doing? And before you tell me it’s league business—Don’t, or I’m going to go free the guy myself right now.”  
  
Batman stared at them, calmly for a long moment before speaking.  
  
“Superman, Superboy, retrieve the pod containing Match, and return to the Watchtower,” Batman said seriously, “Diana, Power Girl; take Aiden and investigate the location of his recent battle against Dr. Sivana and ‘Divine.’”  
  
Annoying, but he wasn’t getting cut out entirely, so that was something.  
  
“You’re going to find Emil?” Aiden fished, expecting nothing.  
  
Surprisingly enough, he confirmed it.  
  
“Yes,” Batman said simply, turning away.  
  
Superman didn’t wait as he strode across the room towards the Zeta-tubes, and Superboy turned to follow him, but not before he shot a look that might have been gratitude over his shoulder. Aiden just nodded before turning back to Diana.  
  
“Lead the way,” Aiden said simply.  
  


* * *

  
Fawcett City, 7:21 PM.  
October 13th, 2010.  
  
They apparently had a zeta-tube connection tucked away in Fawcett City, which cut the travel time down to basically nothing.  
  
When they arrived, Aiden found that he had left the city in much more of a mess than he realized—all the adrenaline and vicious fighting hadn’t exactly left him time to study his surroundings.  
  
Almost five floors of the building that Dr. Sivana had been hiding in was trashed, and the spread of broken windows where he had tackled Divine out of gave the image of some kind of impact into the building. Emergency services were set up all over the city, and the entire building was shut off from public access until it had been deemed safe.  
  
Several blocks away, where he had kicked Divine with all of his strength lay the shattered remains of the street far below, completely shredded and impassable by any land-based vehicle. The glass frontages of the shops around the impact zone were totaled and cordoned off.  
  
Aiden swallowed as he looked around at the damage they had caused; this wasn’t at all what he had planned on when he agreed to help Enkidu capture Sivana. He’d assumed that by ‘Heavy Hitter,’ she had been talking about someone with a high level of strength—and that was it. He thought he was going to be in control of the fight with his superior mobility, but that hadn’t been the case at all.  
  
Instead, what he had gotten was a fucking Kryptonian—something he aspired to reach eventually, but he knew just based off his spars that he wasn’t near that level of strength yet—if anything, he was even further away then he had guessed, or Conner was holding back a great deal.  
  
From start to finish, the fight against Divine had been a desperate struggle to remain whole, unbroken, and relatively unharmed; she was vastly faster, stronger, and much like his battles with Conner, completely impervious to his level of strength.  
  
Aiden stared around at all of the damage and made a promise to himself; he was going to become stronger, and he was done messing around.  
  
“Ever hear about collateral damage, Aiden?” Power Girl said weakly, looking around the destroyed floor of the building.  
  
“Call me Bubbles in public, please,” Aiden said, annoyed, “I didn’t do anything in here except the window, and last I checked, Enkidu doesn’t have explosives; this had to have been Sivana.”  
  
He was being honest too, Enkidu seemed to primarily be a highly competent melee fighter, he couldn’t remember her having blown anything up—well, she had admitted to setting fire to the previous building, but this didn’t look like that kind of damage.  
  
Pieces of the massive table had been snapped off, and there were long scorch marks, a single line that crossed most of the room in several areas. It honestly looked more like the result of a laser—or heat vision.  
  
Aiden studied it for a long moment.  
  
“Divine came back here and did this afterward; that’s all damage from heat vision,” Aiden said seriously. “Temper tantrum, maybe?”  
  
Karen looked vaguely upset at the idea that a clone of her had trashed an empty room for no other reason than to take her anger out on something.  
  
“It does look remarkably similar to the aftermath of a fight against a Kryptonian,” Diana said calmly. “Search the area; we need to see if they left anything behind.”  
  
Aiden broke off from the other two and started picking through the debris.  
  
There were no bodies thankfully, the room had originally been full of people, most of which had looked like businessmen and hired bodyguards. He was glad that they hadn’t stuck around to bask in the displeasure of the Divine.  
  
He found what looked like the remains of some kind of unknown device, a metal rectangle with a curvature along the back of it; right near the center was a long spike—it was also cracked in half, well, more sheered in half than anything actually, and an imprint of a boot was sitting right over the top of it.  
  
More than anything, it looked like something from a movie.  
  
“Anything inside?” Diana called calmly, drawing his attention back to the room.  
  
“Can’t see through it,” Karen said, frowning, “It’s lined with lead; want me to break it open?”  
  
Aiden turned and stared at her incredulously.  
  
“The guy was working with a cloned Kryptonian, and he has a briefcase lined with lead, something she wouldn’t be able to see into.” Aiden said slowly, “You don’t harbor a single doubt that it’s a lump of Kryptonite? Seriously?”  
  
Karen flushed and then held the briefcase further away from her.  
  
“As obnoxiously as he put it,” Diana said dryly, “He is correct; we will take it with us; it most likely belongs to Dr. Sivana.”  
  
“There’s some kind of technological device over here as well,” Aiden said evenly, “It honestly looks like some kind of mind control thingy from a horror movie, I’m not going to lie.”  
  
The end of the spike even had the tiniest splash of red on it—yikes.  
  
“There were probably cameras in here, right?” Aiden said, frowning, “Think the footage is saved somewhere else?”  
  
“Unknown,” Diana stated calmly, “It’s part of the process however, we will look into it.”  
  
Aiden just nodded.  
  
“A briefcase, a mind control thingy, a clone of a beautiful girl, and a mad scientist all walk into a room,” Power Girl said idly, “What’s the punchline?”  
  
Aiden snorted at the self-brag she managed to slip into the question and earned a smirk that once again brought back very recent memories of having his ass kicked horribly.  
  
“Starting with solutions ironically isn’t the optimal solution to solving a situation,” Diana said distractedly, “Hold onto those theories until we have more information.”  
  
Aiden had heard that piece of advice before if worded a bit differently.  
  
“Batman probably already knows how everything happened anyway,” Aiden said off-handedly, “Anything we can come up with is probably less informed.”  
  
Diana raised an eyebrow at him.  
  
“How would he possibly know what happened here?” Diana said strangely. “We only found out about this when Superman contacted us.”  
  
Aiden opened his mouth and then closed it.  
  
“It’s Batman.” Aiden said, annoyed, “He probably has a horde of Batdrones or Batrats scurrying about around looking in everyone’s houses checking for thought crimes!”  
  
Karen let out a startled laugh at the idea, but Diana shook her head.  
  
“You have some very strange misconceptions about him, Aiden.” Diana said hesitantly, “I’ve never seen anything like what you are describing.”  
  
Aiden floundered for a moment, unable to really argue with the rather gentle statement.  
  
“Did he bug the apartment he gave me?” Aiden said seriously, narrowing his eyes at her. “Don’t lie, or you’ll be disappointing your rope.”  
  
“Her rope?” Karen said incredulously.  
  
Neither of them paid her any mind.  
  
“To the best of my knowledge, nothing like that has occurred.” Diana said firmly, “I’m willing to repeat that statement under the influence of my rope.”  
  
Aiden frowned at her; once again, he didn’t find himself mistrusting her. So his characterization of Batman may have been influenced by his old world’s popular culture to some extent—maybe he wasn’t quite as invasive as everyone had seemed to believe. Or, Aiden thought, that’s exactly what Batman wanted him to believe—no, that way lay madness.  
  
“Fine, I was kind of treating him like a super violent private investigator, I won’t lie,” Aiden admitted.  
  
“To be fair,” Karen interjected curiously, “That’s more or less how Robin describes him.”  
  
Diana gave her a look that might have been exasperation.  
  
“What?” Karen said indignantly, “He does!”  
  
Aiden opened his mouth to respond when his phone started ringing. He retrieved it from his pocket and held it to his ear.  
  
“We found him,” Conner said pleased, “The pod is now back at The Watchtower.”  
  
“Nice work, Conner.” Aiden said honestly, “You did good—not as good as us; of course, we found a briefcase.”  
  
“A briefcase?” Conner said, confused.  
  
“I found a briefcase,” Karen huffed.  
  
“Sorry,” Aiden said easily, nodding at Power Girl. “I meant, ‘I' found a briefcase.”  
  
“Hey!” Karen said indignantly.  
  
Diana just sighed.  
  


* * *

  
Aiden’s Warehouse, Boston, 11:37 PM.  
October 13th, 2010.  
  
“Are you seriously still working?” Aiden said tiredly as he entered the Byrna’s area of the warehouse. “It’s almost midnight.”  
  
“Hello to you too,” Byrna said, bemused. “Of course I am, and I’m almost done too.”  
  
Aiden could see that; most of her new power armor was assembled on a mannequin by the wall. Sleek, blue, with smooth interlocking plates, clean lines, and polished to a mirror finish, the only thing missing was the helmet—which was the piece she was currently remodeling. The helmet now had a dark glass visor horizontally aligned within the faceplate, and the inside seemed to be filled with thick padding.  
  
“Looks about three million percent better than the Abominable Snowlump,” Aiden taunted. “Nice job.”  
  
“It was cool, dammit!” Byrna said heatedly, “You just have no taste!”  
  
Aiden wondered about her self-awareness sometimes.  
  
“Oh!” Byrna said suddenly, “Tracy said she was done with your death machine; she left this morning.”  
  
“Oh, hell, yes,” Aiden said happily. “I wish it was done a week ago because a lady snapped her foot off in my ass today.”  
  
Byrna turned away from her helmet to look at him for the first time since he entered the building.  
  
“Snapped her foot—,” Byrna said, bewildered before her eyes widened. “What the hell happened to you?”  
  
Aiden tugged at the bandages that were wrapped around his shoulder. Diana had finally convinced him to go to a hospital instead of returning with them, and he honestly had no problem with never using another Zeta-tube in his life, so he had gone fairly easily.  
  
He didn’t trust those things at all.  
  
His back had been pretty badly scratched up from being dragged through the asphalt for a mile or two by his face, and his left shoulder hurt from blocking repeated hits from the wrecking ball that was Divine.  
  
He’d gotten himself treated and then left, partially against the wishes of the doctor, but he did manage to get some painkillers to go—better than nothing, really. He would heal fairly quickly, and honestly, he was lucky he hadn’t been injured worse. He must have grown a little bit stronger after his almost defeat by the giant plant because he’d taken far less damage from what was probably more force.  
  
“I was helping Enkidu capture a villain, and then I got into a fight with a Kryptonian clone,” Aiden admitted, “I’m not even joking either.”  
  
“Can you not?!” Byrna said, outraged, “If you get killed doing something stupid, who’s going to pay me?”  
  
Byrna moved to inspect him for damage, and he raised his arm obligingly so she could check the bandages. Aiden rolled his eyes at the complaint.  
  
“Wow,” Aiden said deadpanned, “I feel so loved right now.”  
  
She was seemingly satisfied that he wasn’t about to drop dead because she gave him a heavy-lidded gaze that piqued his interest.  
  
“I thought it was ‘just business,’” Byrna said mockingly, looking up at him.  
  
Byrna patted him on the chest gently before suddenly spinning away, returning to her desk with a smirk.  
  
“You suck,” Aiden said, flustered, watching her flounce away. “I’m going to test out the gravity chamber, idiot.”  
  
“Are you actually stupid?” Byrna said, alarmed, “What did I just say about doing anything dangerous?!”  
  


* * *

  
Gravity Chamber, Aiden’s Warehouse, 12:12 AM.  
October 14th, 2010.  
  
The chamber was literally just that, an empty room with pale white walls made of a hyper durable material that he had no idea the composition of. The panels seemed irregular at first glance, but there was an emerging pattern when you took a sweeping glance at a wall. There was a control panel by the vault-like door, which had locked audibly when he stepped inside. He studied the screen that was projected into the air, some kind of projection.  
  
Hard-light perhaps?  
  
He fiddled with the controls for a moment before reading through the instruction prompt that appeared; the controls were simple, voice-activated commands, and manual access by the door. The gravity level was shown on one side as a multiplier, and the power available was shown opposite it.  
  
The instructions had indicated that once he went over a certain power threshold, that was the hard limit unless he purchased additional power storage modules. The maximum charge would last for four hours at maximum gravity, and once the current energy reserves were depleted, it would recharge over the course of twenty-four hours.  
  
Aiden was more than pleased with the design; Tracy was a literal mega-mind galaxy-brain as far as he was concerned. How she had managed to even draw out a design for such a thing baffled him. He cleared his voice before speaking.  
  
“Increase gravity to five times,” Aiden said evenly.  
  
The world pressed down on him, and he grunted at the pressure but managed to remain relatively unbowed. He had grown used to the force of the collar’s maximum output, but it was still a large increase from the normal everyday forces.  
  
He lifted his good arm up and threw a straight punch, finding it perhaps a little bit more difficult than the collar’s pressure. Perhaps whatever calculation Tracy had used to control the effect of the force had been refined or changed?  
  
Aiden did a slow lap around the room before coming to a stop by the door.  
  
“Increase gravity to…ten times,” Aiden said bravely.  
  
His shoulder ached as it thudded into the unmoving floor beneath him, and he barely managed to turn his face to the side before he hit. He forced himself to raise his Ki and slowly pushed himself up to his knees with some effort, and as he approached his maximum sustainable power level, it grew easier.  
  
Topped out, he could almost move freely under the force, but there was a noticeable effort involved.  
  
“Well fuck,” Aiden managed, “Increase gravity to eleven times.”  
  
He bent under the weight, even under his maximum, but he found himself grinning as he forced himself upright with effort. Aiden took a slow step forward, and then another, slowly making his way around the room in a walk almost as slow as a crawl.  
  
This was exactly what he needed; he could already feel the sweat start to appear on his skin from the exertion. It had been a long while now since he had reached a level of exercise that had manage to challenge him.  
  
Aiden had known that Conner was stronger than him, even at his maximum power, and that Diana was even stronger than that. Even so, Divine had been a wake-up call; if he wanted to be a contender in the top-level, or even be able to defend himself from them should they come knocking—as he was now, he had no chance. He’d escape Divine by running away like a coward; he’d hit her harder than he had ever hit Diana or Conner, and it had done nothing but send her through the air from the force.  
  
He knew that from Emil’s stat-tracking of his S-cells that he had been approaching a point where they would exist throughout his body, and he knew that they increased faster the more often he used Ki to enhance his physical capabilities. So the obvious conclusion he could see was to train in a way that maximized the infusion of Ki within his body.  
  
He took a deep breath and began reaching for the state that was Roshi’s technique. His muscles surged outward in fits and spurts as he forced his power into those patterns inside him. He felt the effect of the gravity falling away again and forced his mouth open.  
  
“Increase Gravity to twelve times.” Aiden gritted out as the world did its best to crush him.  
  
All of his efforts went into holding the technique, and he stopped trying to move around entirely, standing dead still in the middle of the chamber, Ki surging around him.  
  
Aiden knew that eventually, even without the use of techniques that he would reach the level of power needed to face a Kyprotnian in battle evenly, but he also knew that it would be a long time until he got there naturally—he also knew of a much faster way to achieve that level of power.  
  
Aiden was going to become a Super Sayian.


	24. Chapter 24

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Authors Notes:  
> Very hard to make the Friday drop this week, but we did it. I'm going to start moving closer towards original works over fanfiction this year. I'm not sure what that looks like exactly, but I'll probably start moving the chapter drops to every second Friday for fanfiction, and bi-weekly for Reroll, that way I can start pumping out some of the million ideas I have for originals. Oh, the first chapter of Ameliorate, a $10-exclusive NSFW WIP, is now live on my Patreon.
> 
> Ameliorate Synopsis  
> A wave of energy washes over the earth, setting off an unknowable chain of occurrences and irrevocably changing every single person on the planet. Ninety-nine percent of the population is afflicted with an unmanageably violent, cannibalistic, and sexual mania. One percent of the population retains their minds. One-hundred percent of the population develops superpowers.
> 
> Good luck.
> 
> \----
> 
> Lame ass calls to action:  
> If you want me to spend more of my time writing, or working on content for Reroll or other original stuff, you feel like helping me out, or you simply want to show some support because you are the bee's elbows, check out my Patreon. You could drop by and leave a comment, or review-whatever you feel like on any of the sites I post stuff on!
> 
> Stay safe fam!
> 
> Also! Happy New year!
> 
> What are you're new year's resolutions? Mines to get a bunch more tattoos and some more piercings.

Aiden’s Warehouse, 8:12 AM.  
October 14th, 2010.  
  
Aiden’s body hurt everywhere—but it was a satisfying hurt, a recognition of his efforts to improve his body. He’d stayed at twelve times gravity, in the midst of Roshi’s technique for almost fifteen minutes before he needed to take a break to recover his energy—then he’d gone straight back in and done it again—and again, and again.  
  
There was no way for him to tell if he’d made any progress in the hours passed, but honing his body was something he was familiar with, and it was never a fast process.  
  
Byrna had vanished sometime during the night, heading back to the apartment—neither of them had mentioned the living situation since that first day. She had a tendency to spend all of her time in the workshop, only returning to sleep. Aiden was much the same, but either training, chasing down leads, or working.  
  
Occasionally, he’d return to the apartment late at night to find that the audacious woman had stolen his bed, which had led to several instances of—his phone noised out an alert, and he pulled it towards him, sliding it across the table.  
  
“Hello?” Aiden said seriously once he saw the ID.  
  
He’d been wondering when she was going to reach out.  
  
“Hey.” Sarah said quietly, “I just sent the payment through, sorry it took so long.”  
  
Aiden would take her word for the moment; he didn’t think she was the kind to try and stiff him.  
  
“Thanks,” Aiden said simply, “A heavy hitter, huh? Did you know who she was?”  
  
“I knew what she was; I didn’t know her name,” Sarah said carefully.  
  
Aiden frowned; he had so many questions that he was finding it hard to start.  
  
“You set me up to square off against a Kryptonian, Sarah.” Aiden said evenly, “Am I supposed to take that as a compliment, or a complete lack of concern for my wellbeing?”  
  
“I didn’t get to make the decision,” Sarah said vaguely. “I couldn’t tell you about anything.”  
  
“Did you ever personally want to capture Sivana?” Aiden said calmly.  
  
“I don’t care about him at all,” Sarah mumbled.  
  
Working on behalf of that same person again, a person who either wanted him to get killed or was willing to take the chance so long as he got Dr. Sivana.  
  
“What happened to Dr. Sivana?” Aiden said quietly, “I haven’t seen anything about him being turned in.”  
  
Sarah didn’t reply, and he sighed.  
  
“Did you personally kill Sivana?” Aiden said more directly, but diffusing the focus of the question from her ‘master.’  
  
“Of course not; I don’t want to hurt anyone!” Sarah said quickly before pausing. “Well, that’s not true, actually; there are some people I would like to hurt.”  
  
Aiden would have placed a bet on that one being true. Either the ‘master’ killed Sivana, or they did something else entirely with him.  
  
He remembered the last time he’d tried puzzling out the mystery here and her revelation that she thought he would have created ‘an army of machine-fake-humanoids,’ if he had a hundred years to prepare.  
  
The unsaid implication was that she existed close enough to the situation to know about Thomas Morrows plans, well enough to estimate how many fakes he had built—or that Thomas was her master. Aiden hadn’t missed the obvious connection there either he’d just hoped it wasn’t the case.  
  
If Sarah was one of Thomas Morrow’s creations, then he had to give the man some credit—because he never thought he would come to befriend a robot.  
  
The question was, why was she seemingly going against her creator and slipping him the inner details of some of his plans—even if it was in an incredibly vague sort of way. Hell, without his bullshit advantage of knowing the general outline of the plot, he would have missed her hints entirely.  
  
“Aiden?” Sarah said quietly, “Are you still there?”  
  
So her vagueness was most likely attributed to her working around some kind of list of rules that she had to follow, likely embedded in her robo-brain or some futuristic nonsense.  
  
“Yeah—sorry, just thinking,” Aiden sighed; this was totally out of his pay grade now. “Hey, Sarah?”  
  
“Yes?” Sarah said quickly.  
  
He was going to have to ask for help.  
  
“I’ve decided we’re friends now,” Aiden said simply. “So don’t do anything stupid, alright? I’ll save you; you’ll have to pay me though, what kind of self-respecting bodyguard works for free?”  
  
Sarah laughed quietly before she noised out a muffled noise of agreement.  
  
“Aiden—you won’t be able to contact me for a while,” Sarah said tightly.  
  
“Are you going somewhere?” Aiden frowned, trying to unearth the hidden meaning.  
  
“No,” Sarah said quietly, “The whole Dr. Sivana situation showed that I’m not quite meeting my KPI’s at present; so it looks like I’ll have to do some…remedial training—maybe even train a replacement.”  
  
Aiden felt his stomach twist at the words; clearly, they were carefully chosen for him—she’d been thinking about telling him this for a while.  
  
“Can you stall for time?” Aiden said coldly, feeling his mind sharpen. “Push back your…performance review for a month?”  
  
“I don’t have that kind of pull at the company,” Sarah said quietly. “Hey, looks like I need to go now. You’re the first friend I’ve had in a long while, so thanks, Aiden—this was nice.”  
  
Aiden stared at the phone in his hand, doing everything in his power not to crush it to dust.  
  


* * *

  
Aiden’s Apartment, Boston, 4:12 PM.  
October 15th, 2010.  
  
“Aiden,” Dinah said, nodding in greeting as she stood outside of his door.  
  
He hadn’t heard from any of the Justice League since the clone situation; he hadn’t spoken to Conner either other than the text message update—although he imagined the guy was pretty busy.  
  
“Not going to lie,” Aiden said, frowning, “I half expected my next meeting with you guys to begin with my door being kicked down.”  
  
“It’s much more preferable to keep things civil,” Dinah said honestly. “I’ve told you before, resorting to violence is a poor first step.”  
  
“That and I still have you all over a barrel,” Aiden said, rolling his eyes. “One identity verse the entire league? That’s gotta sting.”  
  
“That door is starting to look more kickable every second I spend with you,” Dinah said dryly.  
  
Aiden snorted and moved to the kitchen.  
  
“Well, the rules have changed here,” Aiden said thoughtfully, “You know who I am, I know who you are, masks are gone, as thin as their all were—I have something I need to talk to you about, but you’re obviously here for a reason, so—you first.”  
  
Dinah raised an eyebrow at the sudden change in the dynamic that they had built from all of the consecutive meetings and discussions.  
  
“The main reason I’m here to today is to thank you for the information and the assistance,” Dinah said simply, “We’ve had many meetings about you since you arrived here, most frequently about the identity situation—although there were others.”  
  
Aiden just nodded at the thanks, patiently waiting for her to finish.  
  
“Project Match was successfully recovered,” Dinah said simply but paused when he didn’t react. “You already knew? Ah, Conner told you.”  
  
Aiden nodded, mind working to figure out how she knew—Oh, he’d rung Conner from his phone in the presence of Superman and Powergirl—one of them had mentioned it to someone, most likely Clark had reported it.  
  
Conner might have shared that they knew each other himself; that was a possibility—he supposed it didn’t really matter.  
  
“He did,” Aiden said easily, “I let him beat me up occasionally—it’s good training.”  
  
Dinah raised an eyebrow at him before smirking, the first big deviation he had seen from their normal interactions.  
  
“Diana tells me that you let her beat you up regularly as well—” Dinah said, smirking, “How generous of you.”  
  
Ouch. They were talking shit about his mad skills behind his back? The audacity.  
  
“Hilarious.” Aiden said wryly, “You try fighting her, and tell me how that goes for you.”  
  
Dinah just smiled knowingly before getting back on track.  
  
“We have an interest in developing a working relationship with you,” Dinah said more seriously, “You seem to be in possession of a great deal of critical information about things that we had no idea about prior to their revelation.”  
  
“You want me to tell you what I know in exchange for what exactly?” Aiden nodded, “If you were going to drag me in, you would have done it already—so do you have something else to offer?”  
  
“You said you had something you wanted to talk about?” Dinah offered.  
  
It was what he was working towards anyway, but it would have been cleaner if he could have gotten her to agree to some other things first—namely regular updates on the Emil situation.  
  
“Before I get into that, I want regular updates on Emil.” Aiden prefaced; it would weaken his position—but it was better than trying to shoehorn it in later.  
  
“I’ll pass it on and get back to you on that,” Dinah said simply. “It shouldn’t be a problem, though.”  
  
“Thanks,” Aiden said easily, earning a raise of an eyebrow. “There's a situation that I thought I could handle, but it’s growing far beyond me—and now a friend of mine is in danger.”  
  
“Short version?” Dinah said seriously, “We can go from there.”  
  
Aiden spent a moment trying to summarise the situation in a comprehensive way.  
  
“There’s a guy who is making machine-copies of people, and he’s been doing it for what could be a hundred years,” Aiden said slowly, watching her. “There are potentially hundreds of them, and they are all indistinguishable from a normal person. My friend is one of them and has been attempting to feed me information about her creator.”  
  
Dinah tented her hands in front of her face listening intently.  
  
“She has implied that she is about to be…remade? Repurposed? Trashed? Replaced?” Aiden said one after another, “I don’t know—she’s unreachable for now, and due to whatever—programming she’s under, she can’t do anything but accept it.”  
  
“That’s the short version?” Dinah said seriously, “This sounds incredibly troubling—do you know who the person responsible is?”  
  
“I’m not certain; I’ve been trying to find that out—but I have a solid guess.” Aiden said quietly, “Thomas Morrow.”  
  
“That’s impossible,” Dinah said, frowning. “He’s-”  
  
“Currently in Belle Reive penitentiary, in a coma,” Aiden said calmly, not breaking eye contact. “An old broken man, incapable of doing anything but sleep.”  
  
Dinah remained silent.  
  
“Thomas Morrow, a man who has shown he is capable of creating human-duplicates, indistinguishable from a person, good enough to fool Power Girl—a Kryptonian.” Aiden continued, “The man who once upon a time made an android who was capable of infiltrating the ranks of the heroes as one himself.”  
  
“Red Tornado,” Dinah said quietly.  
  
“What’s to say that old man Thomas—lying in Belle Reve, isn’t just another fake?” Aiden said seriously. “You wouldn’t know, even if you had a Kryptonian check it out, the only way that Miss Martian knew Bromwell Stikk was a fake was because she couldn’t read his mind.”  
  
That little bit of information might have tipped his hand a bit, and he regretted mentioning it—he shouldn’t have any reason to know how that had played out seeing as they had never reported how they had known to the public.  
  
“Morrow created that replica of himself that was involved in the Yellowstone incident decades ago,” Dinah said quietly in understanding, “He’s been capable of this from the start. There’s no reason he couldn’t have made more than one.”  
  
“Dinah, It’s much, much worse than that.” Aiden said seriously, “He’s had a hundred years to get better at it; who knows what the guy is actually capable of at this point—my friend—I’ve seen and interacted with her multiple times, and I had no idea what she was.”  
  
Now that he was thinking about it, she even came up as having Ki to his senses—did all of the fakes have Ki? Did Red Tornado—did old Tom in Belle Reve have Ki? How hadn’t he thought of this yet?  
  
“I need to go to Belle Reve,” Aiden said suddenly. “To see Morrow.”  
  
“Why?” Dinah said firmly.  
  
“I can sense life-energy,” Aiden said carefully, “My friend has life-energy, which doesn’t make sense because shes supposedly a robot—”  
  
“Is it possible that she started as a human?” Dinah said quietly, “A cyborg, instead of an android?”  
  
Aiden hadn’t even considered the possibility—that would have explained the existence of her Ki, but it would also invalidate any Ki-sense scan he did of Old Tom—because he might have some human parts in him that would let him pass the Ki test.  
  
“Damnit,” Aiden gritted out, “Forget that then; I wouldn’t be able to tell a human from a Cyborg if that’s the case; you’ll have to get Martian Manhunter to check if Old Tom has a mind or not.”  
  
“That’s not necessarily a solution either,” Dinah said gently, “If the Morrow in Belle Reve is a fake made much later, then it’s possible he was created with human parts—a cyborg would defeat both tests.”  
  
“Cyborgs, Androids, Robots, and Clones.” Aiden said in frustration, “This place is a god damned horror show—how the hell do we test if Old Tom is a machine or not? Or any else for that matter?”  
  
“I can think of several people who might have the answer to that question,” Dinah said seriously, standing quickly. “Give me a couple of hours to organize a meeting, and we can discuss it properly.”  
  
“You have my number,” Aiden sighed, “Don’t wait too long, though? This is time-sensitive.”  
  
“I won’t,” Dinah said evasively.  
  


* * *

  
The Watchtower, Earth, 8:59 PM.  
October 15th, 2010.  
  
Aiden stepped out of the Zeta-tube, frowning at the feeling; the room was the same as the last time he’d been here—only this time it was empty. Dinah came to a stop behind him, and he crinkled his nose at the strange smell in the air.  
  
“No greeting party this time?” Aiden asked curiously, rubbing at his nose.  
  
“No, they are waiting in another room,” Dinah said easily, “Something wrong?”  
  
“Weird smell,” Aiden said strangely, blinking as his eyelids suddenly felt heavy. “Can you smell that?”  
  
“No,” Dinah said apologetically.  
  
Aiden turned at the tone, Dinah was standing in the same spot, but she had a clear glass mask covering over her nose and mouth. He stumbled back away from her and felt three impacts on his left shoulder, he belatedly started raising his Ki from it’s resting state, but everything was growing dark.  
  
“Hey, I hope you have space insurance,” Aiden said tiredly, dropping to his side on the floor. “When I wake up, this place is going to have some problems staying in the sky.”  
  
“It’s just a precaution, Aiden; we just need to check if you are one of them.” Dinah said gently, “Don’t do anything rash.”  
  
“Rash…” Aiden mumbled, “Look who’s talking…”  
  


* * *

  
Aiden’s Apartment, Boston, 4:12 PM.  
October 16th, 2010.  
  
Aiden’s eyes snapped open, and he was on his feet in an instant, searching the room.  
  
He was back in his apartment, and a familiar Ki-signature was sitting at his kitchen bar—and it wasn’t Byrna.  
  
“What the fuck was that?” Aiden said furiously, the tenuous trust they’d built completely shattered. “I told you about everything—I came to help you!”  
  
Dinah kept her hands visible on the bench and made no move to change her posture, even when he stomped over to her, cracking the floorboards with each furious step.  
  
“Aiden, we checked on Thomas Morrow, the one in Belle Reve.” Dinah said seriously, “You were right; it was another replica.”  
  
“Obviously!” Aiden snapped, fury growing by the second. “That isn’t what I asked—I’m a half-second away from kicking your ass, Canary.”  
  
“I’m not sure you realize it, but you seem incredibly suspicious,” Dinah said gently, not at all backing down, but watching him carefully. “The league had to make sure you weren’t one of them; the details painted you as an incredibly likely suspect for being one of the replicas attempting an infiltration.”  
  
Aiden clenched his hands in anger, doing his best to restrain himself from breaking something.  
  
“You arrived here months ago in a ship with advanced technology, saying you were ‘experimented’ on by an unknown person. You say you’re from alternate earth without heroes, yet you somehow know all of our identities and the location of a secret project of Cadmus Labs that not even the head scientist knew of.” Dinah said calmly, “A very trusted person that we assigned to you vanishes without a trace, apparently in the company of a cloned Kryptonian—a second identical clone appears and then vanishes soon after, along with Dr. Sivana, all of that—”  
  
Aiden reached over, snagged her by the collar, and dragged her over the bench to hang in front of him. Dinah gripped his wrist with her hands, toes just touching the ground; her expression was tense, but she wasn’t at all scared—instead, she seemed to be evaluating how best to escape his grip.  
  
“All of that, and you were wrong—find out where Morrow is and then send me his location.” Aiden said furiously, “Until then, get the fuck out of my apartment.”  
  
He dropped her to the ground, and the door clicked shut behind her as she left.  
  


* * *

  
Unknown Location, 2:32 AM.  
October 20th, 2010.  
  
A dark room, illuminated by nothing other than a single flickering light above and a panel of blinking lights.  
  
A glass tank filled with a thick viscous liquid, and countless needles, inserted through sealed channels in the glass, thick hoses running from the end of each into the shadows.  
  
A sickly bundle of corded flesh, small, spherical, and blue, sits in the middle of the mess, expanding and contracting.  
  
A single monitor lay embedded in the wall, the numbers slowly ticking unerringly downwards.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In b4 league why you do this reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee


	25. Chapter 25

**Notes for the Chapter:**

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Gravity Chamber, Aiden’s Warehouse, 1:32 PM.  
October 20th, 2010.

Aiden panted under the pressure of fifteen times gravity as he repeated the same movements over and over—unsurprisingly, a week had done absolutely nothing to temper his anger, and when he remembered that today would have been the date of his next appointment with Emil, it had only gotten worse.

Nobody had contacted him with anything of substance about Morrow, and Enkidu had remained completely unreachable by phone or text. He dreaded the thought that it was probably already too late to save her.

He wasn’t unaware of the changes his body had undergone—he’d never been this prone to anger before all of this; he’d had a tight leash on it, used it sparingly as a weapon when it would be most effective. Becoming a Sayian had brought with it a much closer connection with his emotions, and there were times where he thought he’d almost drown in them.

Anger, frustration, and an element of condescension were things that came most easily to him in this body, but until recently, he’d managed to keep his slowly fraying leash tightly wrapped around them. He wasn’t out of control, and he had more than enough self-discipline to avoid something as stupid as going on a rampage.

The constant rush of emotions was just wearing him down, grinding away his patience bit by bit, and leaving him exhausted emotionally. He had no intention of letting it remain this way; he would grow used to it in time; he’d learn methods to cope with the intensity and methods to live with it.

Roshi’s technique had become vastly easier to hold the more often he practiced it, and the long spans of time he spent holding the technique had reduced his Ki wastage exponentially. He’d even figured out a way to hold it steady at about a quarter of its maximum output for hours at a time. It still drained him over time, and he’d need to drop it to recuperate, but it was tangible progress.

He’d had no luck ascending, but he hadn’t expected it to be so simple, even with that knot of distinctive texture along his back—it wasn’t something he could just switch on. Concentrating large amounts of Ki into such a small area wasn’t exactly a simple task either, but he was getting better at it.

He was slowly approaching the maximum gravity level of the room as well, which apparently topped out at twenty times earth’s gravity. He’d have to commission Tracy to locate and supply more batteries for the power source, so he could up the level.

Aiden could feel his strength increasing, his maximum pool of Ki rising every day as he spent more and more of it training—the progress was addictive.

He pushed himself to his feet with a great deal of effort, and slowly moved towards the door, shutting it down along the way, before letting Roshi’s technique drop back to its passive quarter-power state.

His phone was sitting on the bench where he left it, only this time it was filled with notifications for several missed calls, all from the same familiar number. Aiden picked it up in one hand, unlocking it while downing most of his bottled water. Pressing it to his eye as he finished the bottle and capping it off with some difficulty before they answered.

“Aiden,” Conner said blandly.

“Sorry I missed your calls; I was training,” Aiden said simply, “You alright? Sound pretty down if I’m being honest.”

“It has been a rough week.” Conner admitted, “Can we talk?”

Aiden cracked his neck and checked his Ki; he still had more than enough for a spar or two. He doubted that Conner had been in the loop for the entire ‘Knock Aiden out for testing’ ploy, but he had a few things he wanted to talk to him about as well.

“Yeah, feel like a spar?” Aiden offered, “I definitely need to beat someone up right now—may as well be an invulnerable Kryptonian.”

“Same spot as usual, in half an hour,” Conner said challengingly, sounding more energetic already.

“A punching bag that’s eager and prompt?” Aiden smirked, “It must be my birthday.”

Conner snorted before hanging up—Aiden was pretty sure the little shit was just doing it on purpose at this point.

* * *

Outskirts, Happy Harbor, 2:12 PM.  
October 20th, 2010.

Aiden touched down at the edge of the clearing, finding it unoccupied, not unusual—his travel speed if nothing else was vastly superior—he could take pride in that at least. Hopefully, this last week of non-stop training would help bridge the gap between them.

He still hadn’t let his Ki-level fall below half of his maximum, unable to be caught off guard by something as weak as a tranquilizer ever again. If he had to spend the rest of his life maintaining his Ki, he damn well would.

He might have thought Conner innocent in their aggression, but they did know the two of them were in contact now, and there was no guarantee that they wouldn’t try something on him again—especially after how the last confrontation with Black Canary.

Conner’s ever-growing Ki-Signature was easier to pick out of the city of flickering embers, making its way towards his location. Aiden couldn’t help but grin when he realized the lack of starts and stops—Conner’s usual method of leaping, landing, and leaping again had been replaced by a slow but steady flight across the city.

The kid was tenacious, and if he kept practicing every day like he seemed to be, soon, he would see some of the other benefits. Aiden would need to give him a run-down on how to enhance his capability with it, but it was honestly still low enough that that might be a while.

Aiden sat back against the trunk of a tree and waited, and after several minutes Conner slowly touched down in front of him, smiling.

“Nice,” Aiden congratulated, “How does it feel?”

“Amazing,” Conner admitted, before hesitating. “I’m still far too slow, though..”

“You’ll get faster,” Aiden said simply.

“Aiden, Batman told us—me and Karen—what happened at the watchtower.” Conner said hesitantly, “We didn’t know they were going to do that.”

“I guessed as much,” Aiden said easily, “Bunch of dickheads though, last time I trust them with anything—you want to ask them for my ship back for me? I’m pretty sure if I see any of them, it would end badly.”

For both them and me—I wasn’t stupid, Clark and Diana would wreck my shit straight up—Divine had shown me that, but I was more then capable of causing enough collateral damage that if I was truly desperate enough—I might just go for it, dooming a lot of people in the process.

A pyrrhic victory was technically still a victory.

That wouldn’t always be the case anyway; I had more than enough to motivate me now, and I wasn’t going to stop until I felt safe again—needless to say, I was aiming high.

“I’ll tell Black Canary at our next session,” Conner sighed.

Sessions with Canary, huh—he could sympathize with that. When had the younger team gone through that process again? After that training simulation thing had gone terribly wrong?

“Something happen?” Aiden prodded indifferently, “Sound like you need to get something off your chest.”

Conner sat down on the grass without fanfare and stared for a long moment, looking disgruntled.

“It’s not just one thing,” Conner admitted, “It’s like everything is building up—everybody is suspicious of each other because of—stuff. We had a really bad training day—the kind that gets us all put into mandatory sessions with Canary. I see Karen every single day, and I’m constantly reminded that I’m just a copy—an inferior one, who doesn’t have the strength that she has, or the speed, or the heat vision. Clark doesn’t even want to look at me—and it’s not like I can really blame him. I know what I am, and he’s already got Karen to look after.”

Aiden listened to the deluge of problems the kid seemed to be wrestling with, and it sounded like a lot to deal with, even for an adult—let alone a guy that had been pulled out of a tank only months ago.

“I can’t help you with all of that,” Aiden admitted, “But I’ve got some solutions for you if you’re interested in listening to my preaching.”

Conner just watched him.

“Can’t do anything about the sessions with Canary,” Aiden admitted, “Besides, I’m kind of glad that somebody else has to do them—I had to do my time after all.”

Conner scoffed at the smirk he shot him.

“More seriously, if your team is struggling with trust issues, that isn’t going to solve itself, Conner.” Aiden said honestly, “It will take one of you standing up and actually tackling that issue. Let it fester, and the entire system will rot from the inside. These are your friends, yeah?”

“Yes,” Conner said hesitantly. “They are.”

“Then you can’t wait around for one of them to do it, man—be the change you want to see.” Aiden said firmly, “Go find Robin and sit down with him; resolve the problems—then go grab the next one. An even better option is to get all of them in a room together, then do it. Silence solves nothing; communication is what you need.”

“What if they don’t want to talk?” Conner said morosely.

“Fuck that,” Aiden laughed, “One of them digging their heels in? Refusing to participate? Start airing grievances, and when they get fired up enough that they start smacking back, take their issues seriously, don’t just get mad or dismiss them—show you are willing to work towards a resolution. You’re one of the strongest beings on the planet Conner, words can’t hurt you if you don’t let them.”

Conner nodded slowly.

“The whole thing about Power Girl being stronger?” Aiden said thoughtfully, “Just train more often; I gave you the key to solving that problem ages ago—Ki doesn’t just let you fly; you can use it to enhance your physical capabilities once you start building up enough of it.”

“It does?” Conner said, surprised. “How do I do that?”

“With what you have now, you’ll get almost nothing out of it,” Aiden admitted, “You need to constantly use up your Ki, let it regenerate, and then do it again, over and over—if you pushed yourself to max speed, how long could you fly for?”

“Max speed?” Conner said hurriedly, “A minute, maybe?”

Not bad exactly, but he doubted that it was much of a pace.

“When you can fly at that speed for say—twenty minutes,” Aiden said, doing some napkin math in his head, “I’ll teach you how to do it.”

Conner had a fire in his eyes as a concrete goal was placed in front of him—and what else could a Kryptonian do but smash through it?

“How’s Match doing?” Aiden asked, derailing the boy entirely.

“His cells are deteriorating rapidly,” Conner said quietly, “They are working on a solution, but it’s not there yet.”

“His mental state?” Aiden prompted.

“Martian Manhunter says he’s angry, filled with hatred and confusion—I know the feeling well.” Conner said seriously, “I had an idea for that too, we sent a message to the Genomorphs in the city below Cadmus, and they promised to work with us to try and help him.”

“Good idea,” Aiden said, impressed, “They were the ones keeping him calm for most of that time, huh?”

“Yeah,” Conner said, smiling.

“How about those triggers I told you about,” Aiden added, “You get those sorted?”

“Manhunter found them all,” Conner said immediately, “They are gone now.”

There was a silence as they thought about the things they had discussed, and Aiden nodded to himself.

“Well, that’s all I’ve got for you, really,” Aiden said honestly, “—the thing with problems, Conner, is that they will keep on popping up; there’s no getting away from that. You just need to figure out a decent solution and then move forward. So, ready to get your ass kicked now?”

Conner shook his head, smiling.

“You say that every time,” Conner said, amused, “You’ve yet to accomplish it.”

Aiden found that the conversation had done wonders for his own mental state, and he pushed himself to his feet. He held a single arm out in front of himself before clenching his fist and letting his Ki rise to its maximum in an instant; his muscles expanded under Roshi’s technique, and the force of his power-up sent the trees swaying away from him.

“This time’s different,” Aiden said, smirking.

Conner’s short hair ruffled in the wind, and his eyes widened as Aiden threw himself forward.

* * *

Byrna’s Workshop, Aiden’s Warehouse, 8:16 PM.  
November 5th, 2010.

“Completely over my head,” Aiden said honestly, not even bothering to pretend he was keeping up anymore. “What’s the take away from it?”

Byrna deflated as he failed to recognize her genius.

“The take away is that I figured out how to make the ice skating thing work,” Byrna huffed, “Which means I can finally get rid of these stupid rollerblades.”

Aiden wondered how someone could possibly develop such bad opinions—rollerblades were so much cooler than ice skates, Byrna was utterly insane.

“You could have just said that at the start,” Aiden said, smugly, “Besides, rollerblades are about fifteen times cooler than ice skates—you have terrible taste, just Sayian.”

Byrna slammed her screwdriver down onto the bench and spun to her feet, sending the swivel chair rolling across the room from the force.

“Why do you keep saying that?” Byrna demanded, “It’s the fifth time I’ve heard you say ‘just saying,’ today! It’s not funny—stop trying to make it a thing!”

He smirked at the private joke, and the expression just made her madder—Byrna stomped over and into his personal space, tilted her head back to glare up at him. She leaned right up to his face before suddenly vanishing.

Aiden stared at the spot she had been standing without understanding.

“Byrna?” Aiden said, frowning, “Did you make some kind of stealth thing? Byrna?”

There was no reply, and for a long moment, it was like his mind had completely short-circuited; he didn’t even know how to go about investigating what had just happened. He let his focus extend outward in every direction and then moved towards the door of the warehouse, frowning, as he palmed his mask onto his face.

He’d gotten fairly used to the number of signatures in Boston and the general density of them in each city block—but right now, what felt like more than half of them had just vanished without a trace.

Unfortunately, Aiden now had a fairly good idea of what exactly had happened.

That evil wizard kid had split the world into two—something he had warned them all about in advance. It looked like they hadn’t been able to stop him from performing the ritual after all, but at least they would know what was going on.

A girl, ten years old at most, was sitting on the sidewalk next to an empty car that had seemingly crashed straight into a wall—She didn’t seem injured but was looking pretty worried. Aiden turned to talk to the kid before he stopped on the sidewalk in realization.

He was stuck on the wrong side of the split.

“Mother fucker!” Aiden said, annoyed, and the kid jumped at the noise. “Not you kid—listen, worlds been split into two pieces, adults on one side, kids on the other—following me?”

“Um. Yeah.” She said nervously. “Sir.”

It was probably the mask that was freaking her out, he’d been on the news again after that plant nonsense, so this kid probably knew who he was.

“Good, you’re parents or whoever was driving your car is on the other side of the split,” Aiden said sternly, “A lot of people are going to be hurt, and there are no adults left here to do anything about it. I need you to step up and help me—got it?”

The girl nodded seriously.

“They will return in a couple of hours at most, but that doesn’t mean you get to slack off,” Aiden said seriously, “Heres your job; You find as many kids as you can and spread the word about what’s happening—you know where the central park is from here?”

“Yes, sir.” The girl said swallowing. “We passed it on the way into town.”

The kid was from out of town then, unfortunate, but she seemed to know where she was headed, so hopefully, it would work out.

“Good, that’s your goal; get as many kids to the central park as you can, stick together in groups, don’t let anyone run off alone. You see any young kids in cars—get them out of there before they overheat. See any on the roads that can’t take care of themselves, carry them with you—carefully! You running out of hands and can’t carry them?” Aiden rattled off, “Make sure they aren’t in imminent danger, note the street down on your phone, then find more kids and come back for them afterward, got all that?”

“Yes, sir,” The girl nodded again.

Aiden mussed the kid’s hair up and lifted off the ground.

“I’ll be sending anyone I find in your direction, so keep an eye out.” Aiden said, impressed, “You’re a good kid; What’s your name?”

“Traci Thurston,” Traci said seriously. “You’re the hero from the news, Bubbles.”

Aiden cracked a smile at the stupid name; it got funnier every time he heard it.

“Not much of a hero, kid,” Aiden said easily, “I’m just a shitty bodyguard that sometimes breaks character. Don’t get hurt; I don’t need that on my conscience.”

Aiden darted off towards the next signature he could feel, only a street away.


End file.
